South Africa to submit revised trade offer to United States

The Citizen

3 days ago

The South African government will today submit a new trade offer to the United States (US) government as part of the bid to convince President Donald Trump's administration to reconsider its decision to impose a 30% import tariff on South African goods.
Addressing the media today in a joint press briefing with his agriculture counterpart, minister John Steenhuisen, Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau said the new trade offer to the US addressed most of the US's concerns.
The Witness reports that Cabinet has approved that South Africa submit a revised offer as a basis for negotiations with the US. The new offer builds on the previous offer submitted in May.
'The new offer substantively responds to the issues the US has raised in the 2025 National Trade Estimates Report,' he said.
Issues raised by the US during trade negotiations with South Africa included those around import restrictions, which South Africa has imposed on US poultry and blueberries imports.
Tau said the new offer to the US addresses the US import concerns.
'Consequently, the USA-Africa Trade Desk has informed us that it will be shipping containers of poultry and pork to South Africa in two weeks' time, which is testimony that these issues have been resolved.
'The shipments will come from the states of Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina and Alabama through the Ports of New Orleans in Louisiana, Savanna in Georgia and Norfolk in Virginia,' he said.
The US had also raised concerns about the agreement between SA and the European Union (EU) under the SADC Economic Partnership deal, allowing some EU goods to be exported to SA and the SADC region at lower tariffs.
According to the US, the agreement made some US exports to SA uncompetitive.
'South Africa continues consultations with industry and, in this regard, in consultation with other members of the Southern African Customs Union, will identify specific lines to respond to this request,' he said.
Apart from keeping talks with the US open, the SA government is also working on opening other markets for South African industries, particularly the agriculture and the motor manufacturing sectors, which were the hardest hit by the US export tariffs.
Further, the South African government is also launching a financial facility to bail out firms struggling to cope with the US tariffs.
Steenhuisen, who said SA's Agricultural Department is working with the agricultural sector to find new markets, denied that US negotiators had flagged South Africa's black empowerment as a barrier to trade.
'The focus [during the negotiations] was on trade and tariffs. The issue of South Africa's policies was not formally raised with us,' he said.
While there were fears that the US tariffs will put 35 000 to 100 000 South African jobs at risks, Econometrix Chief Economist Dr Azar Jammine was of the view that the impact of the US tariffs on SA was being overstated, saying the duties will affect only a small fraction of SA's global exports.
The fact that the bulk of SA's competitors were not spared the US tariffs – with some countries facing even higher US tariffs than South Africa, Jammine said, meant that some SA exports to the US will remain competitive despite the 30% tariffs.
'We are by no means the worst off in terms of these tariffs,' he said.
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