BUSINESS IS BOOMING WITH SOUTH AFRICA
Kramer, Reed
Business is booming with South Africa While diplomatic relations between the United States and South Africa have plummeted in recent months, aggravated by South Africa's latest rejection of the...
...Imports and exports between the United States and South Africa in 1978 amounted to $2.76 billion, compared to Britain's $2.67 billion...
...And The St...
...U.S...
...In November, the United States refunded just over $1 million South Africa had paid for nuclear fuel that is currently not exportable, since Pretoria has not agreed to full-scale international observation of its nuclear facilities as required under American law...
...Less noticed but also important is the growth in the value of private U.S...
...This report was provided by Pacific News Service...
...Most recently, Business Week reports that Eaton Corporation is considering involvement in a South African gear-and-axle manufacturing venture whose customers would include the military...
...A 70.8 per cent jump in South African exports to the United States accounted for the American takeover of first place, and that boom was largely the result of increased Krugerrand sales and higher prices commanded by two minerals — diamonds and platinum...
...Washington is still awaiting a formal South African response to the step-by-step formula the State Department proposed for breaking the deadlock which has put bilateral nuclear cooperation "on hold...
...West Germany was third with $2.3 billion...
...Its government has now made clear that it sees South Africa's interests best served by rejecting, not accepting, U.S.-sponsored settlement schemes for Rhodesia and Namibia...
...A military trade journal, Armies and Weapons, reported that South Africa has obtained "a sizeable batch" of M-113 155-millimeter artillery guns and will soon replace them with more modern M-109s — both of U.S...
...origin...
...Those mining ventures are the major reason U.S...
...mining firms are forging closer links by their steadily rising investments in South Africa production...
...Louis Post-Dispatch has cited Control Data Corporation documents showing that computer equipment made by that firm was sold last year to the South African police...
...Those economic and military ties help explain why the South African regime has felt able to defy Western pressures and proceed with its own course of action...
...American investors now own about 25 per cent of that country's gold shares with a value of approximately $1.9 billion, according to a recent survey by the Johannesburg brokerage firm, Davis Borkum Hare...
...Reed Kramer (ReedKramer is an editor of Africa News Service, Durham, North Carolina...
...Citing a Western intelligence source, The Washington Post's Jim Hoagland says South Africa bought twenty-five Italian-produced 205 A Bell helicopters in 1974 or 1975...
...The Administration also canceled an export license the Ford Administration had given Sanders Associates for a $150 million deal involving sophisticated ocean surveillance equipment...
...The extension of the arms embargo to prohibit sales of all U.S.-made items, military or not, to the South African military or police was announced by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance on November 2, 1977...
...holdings in South African mining stocks...
...The United States has displaced Britain from its long-time role as South Africa's leading trade partner...
...The BBC reports that an American/Canadian firm, Space Research, has supplied tens of thousands of 155-millimeter artillery shells to South Africa, which has just announced production of its own 155-millimeter weapon...
...Business is booming with South Africa While diplomatic relations between the United States and South Africa have plummeted in recent months, aggravated by South Africa's latest rejection of the U.S.-backed settlement for Namibia, economic and technical ties between the two nations have grown stronger...
...Although the company will not comment, there are indications that the deal is going through anyway, and there is considerable evidence that South Africa's drive to build a well-equipped military machine has had some notable success...
...An interagency task force set up by the Carter Administration to examine American mineral dependency on South Africa recently concluded that the effects of a cutoff or lengthy interruption in shipments of chromium, manganese, vanadium, or platinum, would be severe and costly, State Department sources say...
...investment in South Africa, which grew by 7 per cent to $1.79 billion in 1977, is expected to increase even more substantially this year...
Vol. 43 • September 1979 • No. 9
