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South Africa will present a “generous” new trade proposal to the United States on Tuesday in a bid to avert 30-percent tariffs recently imposed on some of its exports, government ministers have announced.
Washington on Friday introduced the steep tariff—reportedly the highest applied to any sub-Saharan African nation—despite months of negotiations by Pretoria to secure an arrangement that could prevent significant job losses.
Details of the new offer were not disclosed, but officials confirmed that previously discussed measures to boost imports of U.S. poultry, blueberries, and pork had been finalised.
“When the document is eventually made public, I think you would see it as a very broad, generous and ambitious offer to the United States on trade,” Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen told reporters.
Government estimates suggest the tariffs could threaten around 30,000 jobs in South Africa, where unemployment currently stands at 33.2 percent, according to figures released Tuesday.
“Our goal is to demonstrate that South African exports do not pose a threat to U.S. industries and that our trade relationship is, in fact, complementary,” Trade Minister Parks Tau said.
The United States is South Africa’s third-largest trading partner, after the European Union and China. South African goods make up just 0.25 percent of total U.S. imports, a figure Tau said was too small to pose any risk to American production.
Steenhuisen, of the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA), the second-largest party in the governing coalition, said U.S. officials had unexpectedly raised concerns about South Africa’s domestic policies during the talks.
“Things like expropriation without compensation and some of the race laws in the country are issues they now regard as barriers to doing trade with South Africa,” he told AFP. “I think we’re seeing a new era where trade and tariffs are being used to address matters beyond traditional trade concerns.”
He added that other nations, including Brazil and India, had faced “more punitive tariffs” due to ideological disputes with the Trump administration.
While U.S. relations with several countries have deteriorated since President Donald Trump took office in January, Pretoria had previously maintained that political disagreements were not part of the trade discussions.
Tau, however, described the negotiations as “unprecedented,” noting they have not followed the World Trade Organization’s procedures.
“That book has been put aside for now, and we are all grappling with the reality of what we are dealing with,” Tau said. “It is still important that we reaffirm our own commitments to our sovereignty as a country.”
