SA is waiting to hear from the US about a trade proposal it submitted last month in the hope of avoiding high tariffs, officials said on Monday, with only four days left before a 30% levy on its exports is due to kick in.
Pretoria has been tight-lipped about its negotiations with US President Donald Trump’s administration ahead of the August 1 tariff deadline, which comes as the two countries’ relationship has deteriorated over SA’s domestic race policy and genocide case against Israel.
“I can confirm we haven’t received a substantive response to our framework deal,” said Kaamil Alli, spokesperson for trade, industry and competition minister Parks Tau.
“Negotiations are ongoing,” he added in a text message.
Trump has imposed new tariffs around the world before delaying most of them to allow for negotiations. In the past week, his government struck deals with the EU and Japan to lower tariffs on most goods to 15% after threatening 25% or 30%.
Trump said on Monday he expected the US to set tariffs in the range of 15% to 20% for countries that did not reach a negotiated trade agreement with Washington, but did not specifically say if that applied to SA.
SA said on July 1 it was aiming for a maximum tariff application of 10%, and for some products to be exempt.
The DA, the second-biggest party in the government of national unity (GNU), said on Saturday it was being kept in the dark regarding the trade talks and was concerned a deal was “far from completion”.
A farmers’ association wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday asking for urgent action to save jobs.
A department of agriculture spokesperson confirmed the latest proposal was submitted in June, and was a revised draft of what SA had taken to Trump in May.
The office of the US trade representative did not respond to a request for comment.
The US is SA's second-largest bilateral trading partner after China. Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago has said the proposed tariff could cause about 100,000 job losses, with the agriculture and automotive sectors hardest-hit.
Tau seemed to signal progress last week when he said SA had signed a “condition precedent” document with the US trade office, but did not give details about what it contained.
Boitshoko Ntshabele, CEO of the Citrus Growers' Association of Southern Africa, said in a statement: “Should we not be able to secure a favourable trade deal, or the concession for fresh produce, local job losses before the next season will be a certainty.”
Reuters
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