SA is awaiting a US response to its trade proposal, says Ramaphosa’s spokesperson

President Cyril Ramaphosa will attend the annual leaders summit of the G7 group of rich countries in Kananaskis, Canada, from 14-17 June, but it is not yet certain if he will have a separate meeting on the sidelines of the meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said Ramaphosa would participate in the discussion on the summit theme of energy security, including critical mineral supply chains.

Asked if Ramaphosa would have a separate one-on-one meeting with Trump, Magwenya told a media briefing on Thursday that Ramaphosa’s schedule of individual meetings was still being arranged.

However, he noted that Ramaphosa’s meeting with Trump in the White House last month was comprehensive. “I would imagine there’s no real pressure for the President to push for that meeting [at the G7], because … [the White House meeting was] recent…. Instead, it would be important for Ramaphosa to give himself time to meet other G7 leaders to align the work of the G7 with that of the G20 during South Africa’s presidency of the G20.”

Magwenya said that Ramaphosa was more hopeful than he had been before his White House meeting with Trump that the US president would attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November.

He said Ramaphosa had reaffirmed the invitation to Trump, who was “not openly and outrightly opposed to that invitation … we remain hopeful that President Trump will attend”.

He said Ramaphosa had made the very strong point to Trump that the US had been at the forefront of creating the G20, and so it would be important for Trump to be present when Ramaphosa handed over the presidency of the G20 to the US. He added that Trump “acknowledged and recognised” that point.

The US will be the next president of the G20, taking over from SA after the summit.

Ramaphosa was “far more hopeful now than we were before the visit to the White House that he will attend, and hopefully we’ll be able to throw in a round of golf there”, added Magwenya.

Trump had previously indicated he would not attend the G20 summit because of the “genocide” he said was being perpetrated against white Afrikaners.

Magwenya noted that most people had based their analysis of the White House meeting on what they saw on TV, when Trump screened a video of EFF leader Julius Malema chanting “Kill the boer” and displayed a dossier of alleged murders of white South African farmers.

‘The real meat’

Magwenya said, “The real meat of the meeting was what transpired in the closed session. And the President is enthused and satisfied with the opportunity that he had to be in discussion with President Trump. The President feels that we had a much better position post that visit than we were prior to the visit. And certainly it has opened the door for more engagements between our respective trade teams.”

He said that Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau had presented a trade proposal to his counterpart, the US trade representative, and Tau was “awaiting a detailed response to that package proposal.

“And meetings are planned for later on in the month where there will be more formal and substantive engagement on what I will call the new trade relationship framework with the US.”

The discussions would include the issue of trade tariffs, said Magwenya, referring to the 31% “reciprocal” import tariffs that Trump had slapped on SA, before suspending them for 90 days on 9 April.

The trade talks also offered “an excellent opportunity to expand the basket of tradable goods between ourselves and the United States”, said Magwenya.

He said Ramaphosa had stated before meeting Trump that he would like to see South Africa continue to participate in the Agoa preferential trade scheme with the US. However, whether or not that happened, Ramaphosa and his administration “are optimistic that in the end we will have what will be a mutually beneficial trade relationship with the United States”.

He suggested the new relationship would be “better for our economy as well as for the US economy”.

Magwenya said the narrative that there is a “so-called persecution of people of a particular race in South Africa … is dying a very slow natural death … because it cannot be substantiated”.

Scornful

Asked to confirm that a second flight of Afrikaner “refugees” had left for the US last week, Magweyna said the government was aware of the flight and that fewer people were on it than were on the first flight. He said Pretoria was “a bit scornful of that programme, because it’s not part of any reality”.

He said the programme should be called “a recruitment of people of a particular race, with certain skills”, and should not be “disguised as other things, because there is no South African citizen that is a refugee”.

On other international issues, Magwenya said that on 30 June Ramaphosa would attend the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain. The conference would discuss issues such as how to fully implement the Sustainable Development Goals and reform the international financial architecture.

Magwenya said South Africa would convene a side event at the conference on how to achieve debt sustainability in developing economies.

Because he would be attending this conference, Ramaphosa would be unable to attend the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia, he said. DM