The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa's pending visit to the United States (US) to meet his counterpart, President Donald Trump. We are confident that President Ramaphosa's visit will provide an opportunity to unlock a process to address political, trade and other difficulties in the bilateral relationship between both the US and South Africa.

The US is South Africa's second largest trading partner and a major source of investment. The 600 US companies invested in South Africa and South African companies exporting to the US, collectively employ more than 500 000 South African workers.

The African Growth and Opportunities Act has provided preferential tariff access to South Africa and the majority of the African continent. It has been a boon to South African mining, agricultural, chemical, jewelry, motor, clothing and other manufacturing exports. It has helped nurture Africa's economic integration with South African vehicle exports to the US including car seats from Lesotho, wire harnesses from Botswana, rubber from Cote D'Ivoire and steering components from Tunisia.

COSATU is confident that a mutually beneficial reset of US-South African relations can be achieved and done in a manner that respects the sovereign choices of both nations, including South Africa's democratically mandated and constitutionally necessitated transformation path. It is critical that this reset be premised towards enhancing trade, investment, tourism and other economic opportunities between both countries, and be anchored upon the interests of South African, African and American workers.

The Federation will continue to work closely with government and business to ensure this reset continues to be expedited and achieved. Equally important, given our extremely painful 43.1% unemployment and 1% economic growth rates, government and business must accelerate efforts to secure additional markets for South African exports and sources of investment, in particular through the African Continental Free Trade Area and strategic trading partners in the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Japan, East and South East Asia, amongst others.