In response to questions from reporters about whether he was aware of any Afrikaner farmers who were accepting Trump’s asylum offer, Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said he was not aware of any farmer who wanted to leave SA.
“I don’t want to lose a single farmer from SA — whether they are Afrikaans [or] English; whether they are black, white, Indian or coloured — we can’t afford to lose a single farmer,” he said.
“I’m not surprised that people want our farmers because we have the best farmers and farmworkers in the world. The fact that we are able to compete — as an agricultural sector — against heavily subsidised Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere competitors and still be able to hold our own is a tribute to the fact that some of our farmers and farmworkers are the best in the world.”
“I’ve not yet met a single farmer … who wants to go,” he said. Steenhuisen was in the Free State recently where he spoke to small-scale farmers and commercial farmers on the issues affecting the sector.
“Every single one of them said to me very clearly, ‘We don’t want to go to America, we want to make this work. But we need your help, as the minister, to help fix some of these problems.’”
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Steenhuisen says that South Africa needs to expand its agricultural markets to ensure that the country is not reliant on a single trade partner, in the face of potential tariffs from the US and the possibility of being excluded from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).
“We can’t change who sits in the White House. That is a reality. That is a democratic outcome… We’ve got to navigate these next four years, and we’ve got to navigate them in our best interests as South Africa,” Steenhuisen told reporters at a press conference in Parliament on Tuesday.
Steenhuisen said South Africa needed to be “pragmatic and smart” in continuing to protect existing markets that were important to its agricultural sector, but “we also look to diversify our markets”.
“We’re going to go on the hunt now to diversify the number of markets that we have, so that we’re never reliant on a single market, that if there’s a drop-out, there’s a shock.”
Steenhuisen’s comments follow US President Donald Trump’s executive order on 7 February to cut funding to South Africa in response to the Expropriation Act — which he claimed promoted “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners — and South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Trump’s order included that his administration promote the resettlement of “Afrikaner refugees” through the US refugee programme.
The executive order has a slew of potential impacts for SA, not least of which is the strongly implied loss of Agoa.
The Agoa programme is up for renewal in September. South Africa has been under near-constant threat of removal from the programme for more than a year because its foreign policy positions on Russia, China, Iran and Israel have been deemed to be a threat, mainly by Republicans, though also some Democrats, to US foreign policy and national security interests.
The new Expropriation Act: South Africa’s chance to face its imperial past
Last week, four Republican congressmen wrote to Trump, urging him to remove SA as a beneficiary of Agoa.
“Due to its numerous human rights abuses, its vendetta against the State of Israel, and its embrace of the Chinese Communist Party, we urge you to revoke South Africa’s preference benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). We would also suggest that you consider suspending diplomatic ties unless that government is prepared to engage constructively with our own,” read the letter, dated 11 February 2025.
SA is preparing a top-level team to send to the US and other countries in an attempt to mend the breakdown in SA-US relations, according to a Sunday Times report.
Concerns about Agoa
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Steenhuisen said the removal of SA from Agoa would have “very serious consequences”.
“The sectors that will be hardest hit will be agriculture and manufacturing — particularly motor vehicle manufacturing.”
Agoa is considered particularly vital for South Africa’s automotive industry and for fruit and nut producers, which have benefited from its tariff-free access to US markets. In 2023, South Africa exported $3.244-billion worth of goods to the US under Agoa’s duty-free access, including more than $2-billion in transportation equipment — mainly passenger vehicles and parts worth $1.926-billion — and agricultural goods valued at more than $400-million, Daily Maverick’s Peter Fabricius reported.
Steenhuisen said that if SA was unable to retain Agoa, he hoped that it would “move determinately” to get “some form of trade agreement” with the US as fast as possible.
“It would keep those markets open and it would allow us to compete,” he added.
Last week, Trump increased tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to a flat 25%, “without exceptions or exemptions”, according to a Reuters report. He’s also warned that BRICS nations could face 100% tariffs from the US.
Should the US choose to impose tariffs on South African exports — a move that many fear could follow the non-renewal of Agoa — the impact could be far harsher than the loss of duty-free access alone, reported Daily Maverick’s Yeshiel Panchia.
“My big concern is that if we get punitive tariffs as a result of misinformation about SA … the biggest sufferers of that won’t be the politicians who’ve made the bad decisions over the last 15 years, it won’t be the fat cats that got rich on the back of State Capture — the people who will be gut-punched by this will be our farmers and farmworkers, and I don’t think that’s fair,” said Steenhuisen.
He said farming in SA faced “enough obstacles” without Trump’s potential tariffs, including issues at South Africa’s ports, dilapidated road networks and rural infrastructure, and stock theft issues.
Steenhuisen highlighted that US consumers would also lose out if South Africa were removed from Agoa.
“South Africa’s agricultural products are of the highest quality and are sought after the world over, which is why we’re able to start accessing new markets… They [US consumers] need our products… If that was to be shut off I think the American consumers would also be denied an excellent quality of agricultural product,” he said.
