JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pushed back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of a 30% tariff, saying that it was based on an inaccurate understanding of the two countries’ trade and that negotiations with the U.S. would continue.
Trump ramped up the trade war he started in April by telling 14 countries including South Africa on Monday that they face sharply higher “reciprocal” tariffs from August 1.
South Africa has been trying to negotiate a trade deal with the U.S. since May, but it has yet to agree terms.
“South Africa maintains that the 30% reciprocal tariff is not an accurate representation of available trade data,” Ramaphosa said in a statement late on Monday.
He said South Africa’s interpretation was that its average tariff on imported goods was 7.6% and that 77% of U.S. goods face no tariffs in his country.
Ramaphosa said it was positive that Trump had said the 30% tariff could be modified depending on the outcome of trade talks, and he urged South African companies to seek new export markets in the meantime.
The 30% tariff will not combine with previously announced sectoral tariffs, such as those on automobiles, steel and aluminium.
South Africa first proposed a trade deal in May when Trump hosted Ramaphosa in the White House and presented him with false claims of a “genocide” against whites in South Africa.
The U.S. is South Africa’s second-largest bilateral trading partner after China.
As well as car parts and other manufactured goods, South Africa exports agricultural products to the U.S. and stands to lose about 35,000 jobs in its citrus industry if the higher tariff takes effect.
South Africa’s Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said on Tuesday that the country needed to use the next few weeks to try to stop the 30% tariff from happening.
(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov; Additional reporting by Rhea Rose Abraham in Bengaluru; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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