LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

SA has to overhaul trade policies, not merely tweak them

The Trump administration’s latest threat of punitive tariffs will require more than tweaking trade policy — South Africa should revert to realism.

News that the US intends imposing a 12.5% punitive tariff on goods from South Africa and 59 other countries because they allegedly import goods produced with forced labour has been met with perplexity.

This is evident from Business Day’s report that trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau has asked Washington to provide evidence that South Africa is importing such goods (“SA among 60 countries facing new 12.5% tariff from US”, June 3).

The news has also been met with frustration. For example, it was mentioned that the Trump administration has already inflicted considerable damage on South Africa’s economy and on the welfare of its people. “Economic reparations” should be demanded from the US, it was argued.

On the other hand, it’s also been suggested that the government establish whether South Africa is doing enough to prevent imports of goods produced using forced labour instead of just having “a legal framework” prohibiting such imports, a distinction made by US trade representative Jamieson Greer.

Tau insists that South Africa is not being “singled out”. That is disingenuous; the country has been in the Trump administration’s crosshairs since its first day in office. Much of the blame for that lies with the ANC and its anti-American and anti-Western foreign policy. The ANC’s domestic antiminority policies have also added considerable grist to Washington’s mill.

Whether South Africa has slipped up on the forced labour issue remains to be determined. Policing value chains is no easy matter. It’s also a bit presumptuous of Greer to complain about unfair competition and exposing American workers to uneven trading conditions when most of the damage to the US economy and to its workers is the result of Trump’s foolish tariffs, which are reminiscent of late 19th-century protectionism and nationalism.

Trump’s animosity, not just to South Africa but to most of the world, is due to his “America First” approach to international politics and to his almost complete abandonment of the principle of an international community. Still, that should not justify a business-as-usual attitude on South Africa’s part.

Trump has hastened the return of international politics to the era of great power rivalry experienced from the 1800s to 1945. Consequently, to paraphrase Thucydides, South Africa, weakened by 30 years of ANC misrule, should recalibrate to avoid suffering at the hands of the strong.

That means restoring realism to the country’s misguided foreign policy, which includes stopping the search for monsters to slay (an example being the genocide prosecution against Israel at the International Court of Justice). It also means returning domestic politics to the democratic contract entered into in 1994.

Whether the tariffs are imposed depends on the outcome of a public hearing scheduled by the US trade representative’s office for July 7. South Africa must submit written comments by July 6.

It should be evident, in the context of SA-US relations, that merely tweaking the technicalities of trade policy will not suffice.

François Theron

Pretoria

Illegal immigration is far worse than Stats SA claims

I refer to your article, “Migrants aren’t SA’s problem — this is why SA is struggling” (July 2).

The writer is talking from a privileged position and has no idea of how many illegal immigrants are in the country. To claim that Stats SA is reliable and to mention the 2022 census are untruthful.

I was shocked to learn of the outcome of the 2022 census; Stats SA works on estimates that are outdated and don’t show the actual population count. They can’t tell how many illegal immigrants are in the country — there isn’t a database for that.

The government should use the opportunity to create a database for all foreigners at this point. In as much as I agree that the problem of the country is unemployment and the lack of infrastructure development, illegal immigration is the main problem, as South Africans have to share the little that we have with illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, the ANC has allowed this to continue for a long period at the expense of its citizens.

Mirriam Mhlongo

Via Business Day Online

Merit should come first, every time

Your article, “White and Indian men still dominate SA’s top management roles” (July 2), refers.

The idea that white and Indian men are sitting in high offices and conniving to keep competent black and coloured people out of top management is absurd.

Dig deeper — experience, qualifications and competence are the “cause”, and long may it last. I’d take those three qualities over race every day.

Guyck van Heerden

Via Business Day Online

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