Another US trade deal on the table for South Africa
South Africa is considering a revised trade deal from the United States and is hopeful it can agree terms that will ease the impact of 30% tariff imposed by the Trump administration, President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
South Africa’s Department of Trade, Industry and Competition officials told their United States counterparts they need about two weeks to discuss the offer with other government agencies before responding, according to a person familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified as the information is private.
“We have now entered the phase of more formalized negotiations based on the text we have received,” Ramaphosa said in a briefing on Thursday.
“That to us is encouraging. It basically means that we are not just talking, we are now more focused, basing everything we talk about on text, which should lead to some measure of finality.”
Ramaphosa dispatched a negotiating team to Washington to try and get the levies lowered on the country’s exports to the United States, its second-largest trading partner after China.
The tariffs, the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, are hurting South African sales of vehicles and may curb shipments of agricultural products including citrus and wine to the world’s largest consumer market.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative and the State Department didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Last week, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met Parks Tau, South Africa’s trade minister, in Washington DC, a sign of possible rapprochement after months of frosty relations between the two nations.
Trump has falsely claimed that South Africa’s government is subjecting White Afrikaans farmers to genocide and has offered members of that community refugee status.
The United States leader has also criticized South Africa’s Black economic empowerment laws aimed at redressing the impact apartheid-era discrimination. In May, Trump berated Ramaphosa at an Oval Office meeting.
South Africa’s trade team earlier submitted its own proposal to the United States, which included making it easier for American companies to sell chicken meat and pork in South Africa as well as a pledge to buy liquefied natural gas from the United States, the government has said.
Two-way trade between the nations totaled $21.6 billion in 2024, with South Africa enjoying a $7.7 billion (R133.49 billion) surplus, International Monetary Fund data shows.
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