South Africa holds off tariff retaliation

South Africa’s government said it would be ill-considered and counterproductive to rush into imposing reciprocal tariffs on imports from the US after Washington hit it with punitive charges. 

“There are all sorts of knee-jerk reactions to the announcements made” about the tariffs, Parks Tau, South Africa’s trade minister, told reporters on Friday.

“It’s a risky thing to do to simply decide that we’re now going to impose reciprocal tariffs. I think it is a race to the bottom.” 

US President Donald Trump earlier week announced “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from across the world after accusing its trading partners of having exploited its openness to free trade while protecting their own economies from fair competition to the detriment of US manufacturers. 

It will place a flat duty of 10% on a range of goods arriving from abroad, with higher charges on imports from about 60 countries — including South Africa, which will incur a 31% levy.

Relations between South Africa and its second-largest trading partner have soured since Trump accused the southern African nation of unlawfully seizing land from the White minority.

The South African authorities haven’t confiscated any private land since apartheid ended in 1994.

“South Africa remains committed to a mutually beneficial trade relationship with the United States,” but punitive tariffs “are a concern and serve as a barrier of trade,” International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola said at Friday’s briefing. 

“We have in excess of 600 US companies that are in South Africa — we’re not going to wake up one day and say we want to target US companies, it would be counterproductive,” Tau said.

“It’s not in our interest as a country and as an economy.”