SA and America must strengthen trade relations: US diplomat

Brian Phipps - the Counsellor for Political Affairs in the Embassy of the United States of America, spoke at an event hosted by the Consul General in Durban, this morning.

He says trade is the lifeblood of the global economy.

"South Africa's exports to the US - whether it's motor vehicles, wine, or citrus - have been very, very important, and responsible for thousands and thousands of South African jobs. With your very high unemployment rate, you need to create more jobs - and a great way of creating jobs is through exports, and building your export markets to the US," he said.

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Phipps added that America is a big investor in South Africa, and it was important for both nations to continue to foster good economic relations with each other.

"We've got over 600 companies here, thousands of jobs are created by those investors, so our economic relationship is going to continue and to prosper," he said.