Trump rout a ‘new era’, could reset ties – S/Africa president

File: South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa. Photo by EMMANUEL CROSET / AFP.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said Wednesday the Democrats’ rout of the Republicans in US midterm elections heralded a “new era in world relations” and could thaw strained ties between Pretoria and Washington.

US-South Africa tensions have mounted over a range of policy disputes, culminating in Washington’s removal this week of South Africa from a trade deal offering eligible sub-Saharan African countries preferential US market access.

“I do think that this group is going to introduce a new era in world relations,” Ramaphosa told reporters when asked about the Democratic result.

“We’re hoping that on a bilateral basis, there will be a coming together of minds where we will find a proper path forward on geopolitics as well as on trade matters and investment matters,” Ramaphosa said, speaking after voting in local government elections.

The US decision to exclude South Africa as well as Rwanda from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is set to take effect on January 1, with fears it could cost the battered local economy thousands of jobs.

South Africa is the biggest beneficiary of the programme.

The two countries have clashed over race, trade and diplomacy, with Washington cutting aid, imposing tariffs, expelling South Africa’s ambassador and boycotting a G20 summit in Johannesburg, against the backdrop of the country’s unresolved legacy of white minority rule.

Last year, President Donald Trump berated Ramaphosa in the Oval Office over discredited claims of a “white genocide”.

South Africa — Africa’s most industrialised nation — is the United States’ largest trading partner on the African continent, with more than 500 US businesses and 30,000 US citizens based in the country.