{"id":458294,"date":"2026-02-06T20:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/458294\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T20:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:32:09","slug":"facing-high-trump-tariffs-africas-leading-economy-says-its-close-to-a-new-trade-deal-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/458294\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing high Trump tariffs, Africa’s leading economy says it’s close to a new trade deal with China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) \u2014 China<\/a> and South Africa signed a framework agreement for a new trade deal on Friday as Africa’s leading economy looks to other options following the high import tariffs<\/a> imposed on it by the U.S. and its diplomatic fallout<\/a> with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s Ministry of Trade and Industry said the agreement would start negotiations over a deal that would give some South African goods, such as fruit, duty-free access to the Chinese market. The ministry said it expected the trade deal to be finalized by the end of March.<\/p>\n

In return, the trade ministry said China will get enhanced investment opportunities in South Africa, where its car sales<\/a> have seen rapid growth.<\/p>\n

The U.S. slapped 30% duties on some South African goods under U.S. President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs policy<\/a> \u2014 one of the higher rates applied across the world. South Africa has said it is still negotiating with the U.S. for a better deal.<\/p>\n

The China-South Africa deal follows others looking for alternatives to U.S. partnership<\/a> in the face of Trump’s aggressive trade policies.<\/p>\n

The announcement on the negotiations between China and South Africa came days after Trump issued a short-term renewal of a longstanding free-trade agreement<\/a> between the U.S. and African nations. The U.S. extended the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which South Africa is a major beneficiary of, just until the end of the year and indicated it would be modified to fit the administration’s America First policy.<\/p>\n

China is already South Africa\u2019s largest trade partner for both imports and exports, while Chinese economic influence across the African continent<\/a> continues to grow and it dominates in the extraction of Africa\u2019s critical minerals<\/a> that are key components for new high-tech products.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa looks forward to working with China in a friendly, pragmatic and flexible manner,\u201d the trade ministry said.<\/p>\n

Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau, who traveled to China to sign the agreement, said the deal would benefit South Africa\u2019s mining, agriculture, renewable energy and technology sectors.<\/p>\n

U.S.-South Africa diplomatic ties have plunged to their worst point in decades after the Trump administration accused South Africa of pursuing an anti-American foreign policy and allowing the violent persecution of a white minority group at home. South Africa’s government has denied allegations that white Afrikaner farmers<\/a> are being killed in a widespread effort to seize their land as baseless.<\/p>\n

Trump has also barred South Africa<\/a> from taking part in meetings of the Group of 20 rich and developing nations this year in the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) \u2014 China and South Africa signed a framework agreement for a new trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5684,45,49,48,95,46,862,5685,2661,187626],"class_list":["post-458294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-africa","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china","tag-economy","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-south-africa","tag-trade-deal","tag-trade-ministry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}