he said<\/a>: “Africa is an important source of critical raw materials, but we do not want to be defined as simply the producers of commodities.”<\/p>\nHe added that African countries would profit greatly from keeping these materials in-house and transforming them into goods that can then be sold globally, rather than exporting the resources to countries with greater manufacturing capabilities.<\/p>\n
“We look forward to the United States working with African countries to foster an investment-led approach that aims to diversify international supply chains of critical minerals by beneficiating these resources here on the African continent,” Mr Ramaphosa said.<\/p>\n
In terms of natural resources, Africa is the most abundant continent on earth. It has 40% of the world’s gold, according to the UN, and the largest reserves of cobalt, uranium, platinum and diamonds.<\/p>\n
However, several countries face high levels of poverty and inequality.<\/p>\n
The meeting in Johannesburg is looking at the future of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), a trade initiative passed in 2000 to deepen trade ties between the US and Africa.<\/p>\n
It provides duty-free access to the US market and is due to expire in September 2025. African countries are pushing for an early 10-year extension, without changes, to reassure businesses and investors.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere at the summit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said President Joe Biden’s administration wanted to work with Congress to improve Agoa not just renew it without changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US investment could help African countries make the most of its critical minerals and industrialise their economies, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has said At the opening ceremony of a major US-Africa trade summit in Johannesburg,\u00a0he said: “Africa is an important source of critical raw materials, but we do not want to be defined as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"BBC","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,30],"tags":[1653,1676,1683,1684],"class_list":["post-9766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-southern-africa","tag-african-growth-and-opportunity-act-agoa","tag-antony-blinken","tag-us-investment","tag-us-africa-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}