The South African rand eyed R19 to the dollar late on Wednesday (2 April) after United States President Donald Trump signed new executive orders placing reciprocal tariffs on imports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The announcement exacerbated the already tough day for the unit, where it faced high drama and political twists in the Government of National Unity (GNU).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Trump announced a baseline 10% tariff on all US imports, 60 countries\u2014including South Africa\u2014were subject to higher rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deemed the ‘worst offenders’, these countries had significantly higher trade imbalances with the United States, he said, warranting higher tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said South Africa has been charging 60% tariffs on US goods, so the US would impose a 30% tariff on South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trump administration had previously talked up fully reciprocal tariffs, but the president said that the US would be “kind” and cut the tariffs in half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Markets had been on edge all week waiting for the tariff structure to be announced, with the rand weakening significantly on their reveal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The announcement compounded local issues, with markets already reacting negatively to a hotly contested budget vote that showed a gaping division within the GNU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Markets are now doubly anxious about the future of the GNU after the business-friendly Democratic Alliance broke from the ANC in the vote to pass the budget, raising serious questions about its position in the coalition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rand had already given up around 1.3% against the dollar around the vote, about 30 cents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, this was pushed to R18.96\/$ after Trump’s announcement, tanking almost 2.3% by 23h00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spot gold, meanwhile, advanced as the tariffs boosted haven demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The metal has climbed 19% this year, extending a ferocious run in 2024, as investors seek safety amid concerns over the global economy and world order. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold rose as much as 1% to $3,143.39 an ounce in late trading on Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Copper edged lower when Trump made the announcement as traders were concerned levies may hurt demand and drag down economic growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The rand, already under pressure from Wednesday’s budget drama, suffered another blow as US president Donald Trump announced global tariffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":731333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[8640,3670,3281,20932],"class_list":["post-819427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-gold","tag-rand","tag-tariffs","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819427"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819432,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819427\/revisions\/819432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}