JOHANNESBURG, Nov 4 (Reuters) – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday that the results from midterm elections in the United States would usher in a new era in world relations, after millions of voters delivered a scathing rebuke to President Donald Trump.
Relations between South Africa and the US are at a low point.
This week Trump’s administration moved to end South Africa’s duty-free access to the US market, after last year cutting financial aid and expelling its previous ambassador to Washington.
Trump has targeted the country largely due to what he says is its persecution of white people, which South Africa says is a false narrative spread by fringe groups.
“We have seen that the Democrats have taken control of the Senate and of the House, and the people of America have spoken. … I do think that this is going to introduce a new era in world relations,” Ramaphosa told reporters after casting his vote in South Africa’s municipal elections taking place on Wednesday.
Ramaphosa said Monday’s announcement that South Africa would be suspended from Washington’s AGOA trade initiative from January “is indeed a negative for us” and that the focus should be on negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the US.
“Whilst we are sad that we’ve been removed from AGOA, our trade relations with the United States continue,” he added.
Ramaphosa said South Africa had been working to secure new export markets and “diversification has now become the order of the day”.
(Reporting by Nellie Peyton and Sfundo Parakozov;Editing by Alexander Winning and Bate Felix)
