SA will need to seek out alternative markets for its critical minerals exports if the US imposes steep tariffs, mineral and petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe said on Tuesday.
SA is by far the world’s leading producer of platinum group metals (PGM), which are used in automobile catalytic converters and are among critical minerals subject to an ongoing US probe that could result in new import levies.
Washington launched that probe in part to pressure Beijing. China is a top global producer of 30 of the 50 minerals considered critical by the US Geological Survey, and has been curtailing exports.
“If the US imposes high tariffs, we must look for alternative markets,” Mantashe told reporters on the sidelines of a G20 meeting on critical minerals.
Total SA exports of mineral products and precious metals to the US were valued at R65.3bn last year. PGMs, largely produced by miners Valterra Platinum and Impala Platinum, accounted for 76.3% of that total.
Other SA exports to the US — its second-biggest bilateral trading partner after China — include gold, diamonds, iron and manganese ores and coal.
“We should never be bullied for our own resources. If people want to trade with us, it must be in terms that are mutually beneficial to both us and them,” Mantashe said.
As US President Donald Trump has sought to leverage tariff threats to reshape global trade, SA has had a fraught relationship with his administration, which has attacked its domestic race policy and genocide case against Israel.
SA exports to the US are facing the prospect of a 30% baseline tariff from August 1, though PGMs are currently excluded from those levies.
Pretoria is still awaiting a response from Washington to a counterproposal it submitted last month in hopes of avoiding the 30% rate, SA officials said on Monday.
Reuters
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