How South Africa is responding to US tariff threats
South Africa has until Thursday to try to avoid 30 percent tariff on its exports to the United States, which could cost tens of thousands of jobs in the country. Despite Pretoria's efforts, no better trade deal was reached before the 31 July deadline, set by US President Donald Trump.
Workers at the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa works with steel products at the company’s facility in Benoni, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, 29 July 2025. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
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South Africa has been used the delay in the US's imposition of 30-percent tariffs to negotiate hard to avoid the penalty and save jobs, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Friday last week.
"These are very complex negotiations, certainly unprecedented," said his Trade and Industry Minister, Parks Tau. "At this stage, we must focus on the task at hand and not on finding those responsible."
Ronald Lamola, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, called for consensus. "We're talking about our economy. This is not the time for political calculations, whether in the opposition or within the national unity government," he said, according to RFI's correspondent. "We must all speak with one voice. And we can't just blame South Africa; this is a global phenomenon."
New measures
South Africa is therefore launching a producer support programme, as announced on Tuesday by Willem Van Der Spuy, head of exports at the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC).
"Through this support office, we will connect producers with embassies and potential buyers to penetrate new markets. But also, in general, to help the country diversify its exports," he said.
Pretoria's trade ministry has also launched an "Export Support Desk" to assist affected companies and advise on alternative markets during a period tau described as "a trying moment for South Africa".
Tau said the higher tariff was a threat to the country's export capacity, particularly in key sectors such as automotive, agro-processing, steel, and chemicals.
"We are working with urgency and resolve to implement real, practical interventions that defend jobs and position South Africa competitively in a shifting global landscape," Tau said in a statement late on Thursday.
Trump's new 30 percent tariff is expected to trigger widespread job losses in the nation's automotive and agriculture industries.
South Africa had been trying for months to negotiate a deal with Washington and offered to buy US liquefied natural gas and invest $3.3 billion in US industries in exchange for lower tariffs. But the effort was rejected, even after Pretoria made a last-minute attempt to improve its offer.
In the executive order published on Thursday (31 July), Trump slapped new tariff rates ranging from 10 percent to 41 percent on dozens of countries as he seeks to reshape global trade on more favourable terms for the US.
Almost 1000,000 jobs at risk
More than 70 percent of arable land is still in the hands of the white minority decades after the end of apartheid, according to the latest figures from 2017, and it is these farmers who will be among the hardest hit by Trump's new tariffs.
The hiked tariffs could cost South Africa 100,000 jobs, according to the head of the central bank, Lesetja Kganyago.
South Africa remains the continent's most industrialised economy but is already struggling with an unemployment rate of nearly 33 percent.
"The impact in agriculture could be quite devastating because agriculture employs a lot of low-skilled workers, and here the impact is on citrus fruit, table grapes and wines," Kganyago said on 702 Radio.
Between six to eight percent of South Africa's citrus production is sent to the United States.
For farmers in Citrusdal, 200 kilometres north of Cape Town, this is an essential market and also tariff-free under the preferential African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
"At the moment it's about 25 to 30 percent of our business," said Gerrit van der Merwe among rows of oranges on his 1,000-hectare (nearly 2,500-acre) plot.
Political motivations
The tariff hike underscores how South Africa's strained relations with Washington are now having economic consequences.
South African officials have said that their trade negotiations with the US were closely intertwined with geopolitical and even domestic policy issues, including South Africa's
affirmative action law which Trump disapproves of.
Trump has also falsely claimed that the South African government is seizing white farmers' land.
South Africa criticises US plan to resettle white Afrikaners as refugees
The US government is also unhappy with South Africa for bringing a genocide case against Israel at the UN World Court (ICJ), and for its land reform policy which aims to address racial inequality in land ownership that is a legacy of apartheid.
The US remains South Africa's second-largest bilateral trading partner after China, and its top exports to the US include cars, iron and steel products, and citrus fruits.
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