Republicans should refuse to reauthorize the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which offers preferential trade to several African countries, due to South Africa’s behavior in siding with murderous regimes and terrorists against the West.
The latest example is South Africa’s decision to prosecute Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague for daring to respond to Palestinian Hamas terrorists that murdered 1,200 people in an unprovoked attack on October 7.
South Africa’s government has also hosted Hamas representatives during the conflict. It is legitimizing radical Islamic terrorism, abusing international institutions like the ICJ in the hope that doing so will stop the war and allow Hamas to survive intact.
South Africa has taken a radically different approach to international law when it comes to other countries that are actually committing genocide.
In 2016, South Africa tried to pull out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) rather than arresting then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he visited the country. Al-Bashir faced a warrant for the Darfur genocide, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslim civilians were murdered, and millions more were displaced from their homes.
Last year, South Africa hinted again at quitting the ICC over a warrant for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin for crimes against civilians in Ukraine. South Africa made clear it would not arrest Putin if he visited the country for the BRICS summit. In the end, Putin participated remotely. But South Africa’s equivocation on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had already raised eyebrows in Washington, after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa led much of Africa into a neutral stance.
And for decades, the South African government sheltered the brutal tyranny of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, as he drove white farmers off the land and allowed millions of Zimbabweans to starve. South Africa has also threatened its own white farmers.
Yet throughout, South Africa has enjoyed the benefits of AGOA, which allows certain African nations to export goods to the U.S. duty-free.
AGOA is controversial, not only because it undercuts American manufacturing, but also because it benefits Chinese companies that set up shop in Africa to take advantage of the law’s provisions.
Still, under the argument that even exploitative Chinese investment benefits African workers and helps Africa’s industrial development, AGOA has always been reauthorized.
AGOA expires in 2025, and some Democrats in Congress are not only pushing for its renewal, but also for its extension to 2041. Reuters recently reported that African countries, perhaps nervous about the protectionist policies that could accompany a GOP victory in the U.S. elections in 2024, want a ten-year extension of AGOA.
President Joe Biden wants to see AGOA reauthorized — but he has to convince a Republican-led House of Representatives to overlook South Africa’s behavior on the international stage.
Republicans barely pay attention to AGOA. But many Republicans, especially those close to President Donald Trump, are more skeptical of international trade agreements than they once were.
Trump has insisted that American trade partners should only enjoy access to the U.S. economy if they honor America’s other interests. In dealing with Mexico, for example, he used trade as leverage to push the Mexican government to start patrolling its southern border to stop migrant caravans from reaching the U.S.
AGOA should be no different. There have to be consequences for working against American interests, values, and allies.
South Africa can no longer enjoy a free ride on the backs of American workers while it pursues a radical agenda that favors dictators and punishes democracies. And if AGOA is reauthorized, South Africa should be kicked out of it, as Biden recently did to other African countries that ignored human rights.
If South African workers suffer, perhaps they should stop reelecting the same government.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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