{"id":45410,"date":"2025-08-05T10:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T10:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/45410\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T10:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T10:58:07","slug":"south-africa-reels-from-trump-tariffs-as-neighbours-cut-softer-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/45410\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa reels from Trump tariffs as neighbours cut softer deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa has been racing to put in place \u201csupport measures\u201d to help exporters hit by Donald Trump\u2019s 30 per cent tariff, as political fallout over the country\u2019s handling of talks with the US has intensified.<\/p>\n

The tariff imposed on Africa\u2019s most industrialised country is, along with those imposed on Libya and Algeria, the highest on the continent so far. Trump last week reiterated that he had \u201ca lot of problems with South Africa\u201d, citing its \u201cvery bad policies\u201d and runaway crime rate.<\/p>\n

While South Africa largely failed to sway Trump, despite President Cyril Ramaphosa visiting the White House in May accompanied by famous golfers, its neighbours have fared better. <\/p>\n

Lesotho, which produces Levi\u2019s and Wrangler for the US, initially faced a 50 per cent tariff that fell to 15 per cent, while Eswatini, which agreed to resettle violent criminals from the US, was given a 10 per cent rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ramaphosa said the country will nonetheless press the US to change its mind, while \u201caccelerating\u201d its search for new markets on the African continent, the Middle East and in Asia. \u201cSouth African imports ultimately benefit US consumers in terms of both choice and cost,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"USSouth Africa largely failed to sway Trump, despite President Cyril Ramaphosa visiting the White House in May \u00a9 Jim Lo Scalzo\/EPA-EFE\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

To mitigate the damage, South Africa set up an \u201cexport support desk\u201d on Friday to advise exporters on finding new markets, and the government is set to announce details of a financial support package for affected companies later this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the political backlash has widened, with the Democratic Alliance blaming leaders from the African National Congress, its partner in the coalition government, for botching the tariff negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have these tariffs now because the two critical government departments that could have made a difference \u2014 trade and international relations \u2014 have been missing in action,\u201d Toby Chance, the Democratic Alliance spokesperson on trade, told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

Chance said this\u00a0\u201cdiplomatic failure\u201d is underscored by South Africa failing to replace Ebrahim Rasool, its ambassador to Washington who was expelled in March for referring to Trump as a \u201csupremacist\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re reaping the consequence of years of ineptitude\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009it says a lot that South Africa\u2019s neighbours have all negotiated their tariffs down to 15 per cent,\u201d\u00a0said Chance.<\/p>\n

But Ronald Lamola, South Africa\u2019s international relations minister, hit back at the DA for looking to score cheap political points.\u00a0\u201cAmbassadors do not negotiate any trade deals,\u201d he told journalists on Monday.<\/p>\n

Trade minister Parks Tau was adamant that South Africa had not botched the negotiations, saying negotiators tried for weeks to strike a deal and, two days before Trump\u2019s announcement, were told by the US to \u201cplease give us an offer and we will respond\u201d. <\/p>\n

Tau said he believed the 30 per cent tariff could still be lowered. <\/p>\n

Trade experts are sceptical that the government\u2019s \u2018support measures\u2019 will mitigate the damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see the National Treasury easily allocating extra cash, or signing off on tax relief for affected companies,\u201d says Donald MacKay, founder of XA Global Trade Advisors. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople talk as if you can easily replace the US but, as a consumer market, you don\u2019t easily replace its depth. And if it was so easy to find new markets, we\u2019d already be doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RyanSouth Africa produces the most sought after ostrich leather used in these \u2018made in the USA\u2019 cowboy boots with the raw material now hit with a 30 per cent US tariff \u00a9 Ronaldo Schemidt\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

MacKay says the tariffs will not be existential for the country\u2019s economy, since only 7.5 per cent of South African exports land in the US. <\/p>\n

More than a third of these exports include products currently exempted from tariffs \u2014 such as platinum, manganese and pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n

In the worst case, South Africa\u2019s Reserve Bank has calculated that the country\u2019s GDP growth would be reduced by 0.69 per cent \u2014 a scenario that also factors in the rand depreciating by 15 per cent against the dollar.<\/p>\n

Some sectors will get hit harder than others, with agricultural exports \u2014 such as table grapes, citrus and wine \u2014 being the worst affected. <\/p>\n

However, Wandile Sihlobo, the chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, told the FT that the impact on the agricultural sector as a whole \u201cmay not be as significant as many have feared\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly about 4 per cent of South African agricultural exports go to the US, but obviously this will have outsized implications for some areas, such as the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, and for some companies,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sihlobo said for these firms, the government\u2019s support package will be vital \u2014 and could be enhanced if the state\u2019s existing R1.5bn ($83mn) agricultural fund, run by the Land Bank, is repurposed to partly mitigate the damage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa has been racing to put in place \u201csupport measures\u201d to help exporters hit by Donald Trump\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-45410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}