The South African government will present a revised proposal to Washington this Tuesday (12), according to Minister of Trade Parks Tau, in an attempt to reduce the 30% tariff that the President of the United States of America (USA), Donald Trump, imposed on exports to his country last week.
According to Reuters, the government of Africa’s largest economy tried for months to negotiate a trade agreement with the US but failed to reach consensus before the deadline set by Trump. South African exports to the US were hit with the highest tariff in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“The cabinet has approved South Africa’s submission of a revised proposal as the basis for negotiations with the US,” Parks Tau said at a press conference. “It is expected to be unveiled this Tuesday,” he added.
“The new proposal substantially addresses the issues raised by the US in the 2025 National Trade Estimate Report,” the minister stated, highlighting that South Africa tackled some of the sanitary and phytosanitary concerns in the document, but did not provide further details about the proposal. Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, had earlier said that Trump’s team considered South Africa’s initial trade agreement offer insufficiently ambitious.
According to Steenhuisen, who is also leader of the second largest party in the ruling coalition, the Democratic Alliance (DA), the new proposal is “broad, generous and open (…) meeting the criteria of ambition.”
“If we look at [this proposal] from a trade and tariff perspective, I think it represents something that would be good for both the US and South Africa,” he agreed.
In an interview with Reuters on Monday (11), the DA leader stated there was a risk that the 30% tariffs would remain unless the South African government changed some domestic racial policies, such as affirmative action, which Trump has criticized.
Source: Diário Económico
