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Goldman Sachs advises African leaders on dealing with Trump

The top investment bank is briefing South Africa on how to structure an offer to Washington

Goldman Sachs has positioned itself as the trade whisperer to United States President Donald Trump, holding talks with several African leaders, including South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa about trade and improving relations with the US.

At a conference organised by Goldman in Johannesburg, Ramaphosa said he wanted to ‘do a deal… on a whole range of issues’ with President Trump, including economic and diplomatic links.

Since Trump’s inauguration, South Africa has been in Washington’s firing line: targeted for the suspension of all US economic partnerships and aid. In March, Pretoria’s ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool was expelled. Yet South Africa – because of its reserves of some strategic minerals – may be one of the very few African states to be prioritised by Trump’s administration during the three-month suspension of its new tariff rates. According to the latest announcement from Washington, the three-month trade purdah to allow negotiations will end on 8 July (Dispatches, 7/4/25, Legal battles loom over Trump’s Africa tariffs).

The turbulence caused by the Trump tariffs has also shone light on the trade disputes across African. They are one reason why intra-African trade remains at US$208 billion, only 16% of total African exports. But that was a 7.7% increase on 2023 (AC Vol 66 No 9, Blitzed by Trump tariffs, can Africa and Europe agree on trade?).

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