President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed concern over the United States’s decision to impose a new 30% import tariff on South African goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The office of the presidency said that the move was worrying, adding that it gives impetus to South Africa’s plans to negotiate new trade terms with the world’s biggest economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhilst South Africa remains committed to a mutually beneficial trade relationship with the United States, unilaterally imposed and punitive tariffs are a concern and serve as a barrier to trade and shared prosperity,\u201d the Presidency said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump announced a baseline 10% tariff on all US imports on Wednesday, with 60 countries\u2014including South Africa\u2014subject to higher rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deemed the \u2018worst offenders\u2019, 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 \u201ckind\u201d and cut the tariffs in half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tariffs rattled markets, and South African businesses were deeply concerned about the implications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Analysts have pointed to the tariffs, alongside worries that the Democratic Alliance will exit the Government of National Unity, as being significant impediments to dealmaking activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has taken particular aim at South Africa since starting his second term in late January. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US leader has signed executive orders cutting funding and opening a pathway for white Afrikaners to settle in the states as refugees. It has also pulled out of global renewable financing which has also hit South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has said that South Africa’s policies are anti-American and accused the country of violating human rights by discriminating by seizing land and discriminating against certain groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is in reference to the recently signed Expropriation Act, which introduces ‘nil compensation’ for expropriated land in specific situations, as well as South Africa’s long-standing employment equity and black economic empowerment laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His administration has also flagged South Africa’s ties to America’s enemies\u2014Russia, China and Iran\u2014as well as its opposition to Israel, one of the USA’s biggest allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa also now stands to lose beneficial access to US markets through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(With Bloomberg)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The presidency says Trump’s new tariff is punitive and gives South Africa more reason to try reconnect with the world’s largest economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":811928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[12501,3281],"class_list":["post-819458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-ramaphosa","tag-tariffs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819458","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=819458"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819672,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819458\/revisions\/819672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}