{"id":879714,"date":"2026-10-14T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=879714"},"modified":"2026-10-14T10:34:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T08:34:30","slug":"r2-8-billion-united-states-blow-to-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/879714\/r2-8-billion-united-states-blow-to-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"R2.8 billion United States blow to South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African exporters are facing a multibillion-rand blow from deteriorating trade relations with the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses in the Western Cape lost R2.8 billion in exports in 2025, while some are closing export operations with thousands of jobs at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the feedback from Terry Gale, chairman of Exporters Western Cape, who said the additional tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump had significantly reduced trade between the province and what was previously its biggest and most profitable trading partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have already seen a massive fall-off in trade between the Western Cape in particular and the United States,\u201d Gale said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He warned that the impact could ultimately run into billions of rand, with the manufacturing sector particularly exposed because of its reliance on American customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of them have already closed down. I know of factories in Atlantis that were employing up to 700 to 1,000 people. They’ve actually had to close their export section down because of these additional tariffs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gale could not provide an exact rand value for the losses, but said the number of jobs affected was already in the thousands and could increase if the trade tensions continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe cannot afford, as you are well aware, to lose any jobs, and we have to get as much trade going as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Western Cape has historically benefited from a strong trading relationship with the US, supported by demand for South African products and a direct shipping service from Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gale said American importers valued the quality of South African goods and the reliability of the shipping route, which operates weekly with a transit time of around 21 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This regular service allows businesses to plan shipments and provides relatively quick access to the American market, making it an important advantage for exporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes years to find alternative markets <\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
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Terry Gale, chairman of Exporters Western Cape<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

However, Gale said the relationship had taken years to establish and could not easily be replaced by shifting exports to other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople tend to be saying, \u2018Why don’t we look at other trade lanes?\u2019 Yes, we certainly are, but it doesn’t just happen overnight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that shipping costs from the Western Cape to the US were already relatively high compared with other trade routes, which places further pressure on businesses dealing with additional tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consequences extend beyond food and other established exports, with manufactured products, furniture, and automobiles also forming part of the trade relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gale said the tariffs were particularly damaging because the Western Cape had developed a market for specialised manufactured goods that American buyers valued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the uncertainty, he said there was still considerable interest from US companies wanting to trade with South African businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The province was also close to securing several new contracts for manufactured products, including furniture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, continued uncertainty over tariffs could jeopardise these opportunities before they translate into new business and employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has played an important role in building the relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with preferential access to the US market, including duty-free treatment for qualifying products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gale said the arrangement had helped establish a substantial export market over the past decade, with some factories setting up export operations specifically to supply American customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prospect of South Africa losing its preferential access has therefore become another concern for exporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has threatened to remove South Africa from AGOA, which Gale warned could have severe consequences for businesses already struggling with the additional tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gale also warned that losing the benefits of AGOA would further undermine the competitiveness of South African products in the American market and put existing export relationships and jobs at greater risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gale said businesses were exploring alternative markets, but stressed that replacing the scale and value of the American market would take time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deteriorating trade relations with the United States is forcing businesses in the Western Cape to shut down. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":853988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2110325004671832475","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2236852727135126","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26806,853,10022],"class_list":["post-879714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-exporters-western-cape","tag-south-africa","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879714","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879737,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879714\/revisions\/879737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}