South Africa knocking on Trump’s door with ‘mystery’ package
South Africa is trying to sweeten its trade package to the United States in the hopes that the Trump administration will hit reverse on 30% import tariffs.
Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau confirmed on Tuesday (12 August) that South Africa will be presenting a new offer to Washington as part of ongoing trade negotiations.
However, the details of the revised offer cannot be revealed until it has at least been received by the US trade head.
“We went to Cabinet last week and got approval of what would constitute the revised offer to the US,” Tau said.
“We engaged with the US trade head on Friday. We are now ready to submit (the package) and will be doing so today. The trick is not to get the US to read about the offer in the newspaper.”
The new offer will remain under wraps until such time as the US has been presented with it, “but the work has been done,” Tau said.
In a wider briefing on the trade situation with the United States, Tau outlined what he later described as “good will” measures that have already been put in place to ease trade tensions.
This includes lowering certain trade barriers that had previously been offered to Washington, such as granting easier market access for US poultry, opening South Africa to US blueberries, and opening the doors for US pork—all subject to biosecurity requirements.
Tau noted that, through South Africa’s interactions with US counterparts via the US-SA trade desk, shipping contianers of poultry and pork from various states will be coming to South Africa in two weeks’ time.
According to Agriculture Minister, John Steenhuisen, the trade negotiations have been a two-way street, and he reiterated that South Africa’s exports do not pose any economic risk to the US.
Most of South Africa’s are counter-seasonal, for example, so no local US industries lose out.
However, he said it has become clear that the trade battle with the US is not entirely about trade and tariffs. This came as a surprise, he said, because South Africa had been negotiating on those terms.
“It is very clear now that these tariffs are not just around balancing trade. We’ve seen in various letters sent to other countries that these things go beyond just tariffs,” he said.
“We’re seeing some form of new era now where trade and tariffs are being used to deal with issues that are outside of trade concerns.”
Other issues still unaddressed
Several concerns have been raised and circulated through various delegations and communications from the United States about political and policy issues in South Africa.
South Africa has been criticised by the Trump administration and President Donald Trump himself over policies like black economic empowerment and land expropriation without compensation.
Social issues like high levels of crime and violent attacks on farmers, and politicans chanting “kill the boer” have also repeatedly been flagged.
In addition, US politicians have taken a dim view of South Africa’s proximity to “anti-American” partners like China, Russia and Iran, while targetting US allies like Israel.
Steenhuisen acknowledged that there has been “some engagement” with the highest-level diplomat “currently available to South Africa” about these issues.
However, he stressed that these were not raised through the trade desk. “There are issues that are outside our remit and belong in the DIRCO space,” he said.
“Those other issues are going to have to be a subject of DIRCO and diplomatic engagements with Washington.”
Steenhuisen assured that South Africa is not dealing with the matter remotely, and that representatives are physically present in the United States to handle engagements.
Loading ...