PREVIEW
Despite Trump’s bullying, South Africa may receive positive US response after generous offer
Despite leaving the G7 summit in Canada without a meeting with United States President Donald Trump, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is hoping to kickstart trade talks with Washington at next week’s US-Africa Business Forum in Angola.
Without an agreement by 9 July, three months after Trump announced his so-called ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, South Africa would face crippling 30% duties on its goods exports, one of the highest rates threatened by the US.
Though Trump attempted to humiliate Ramaphosa at a meeting in the Oval Office in May by confronting him with false claims of ‘genocide’ against South Africa’s white farmers, the South African president left with the promise of renewed diplomatic and economic engagement after months of being targeted by Trump (Vol 66 No 7, Pretoria picks new envoy for the MAGA minefield).
Pretoria has made a generous offer to Washington as part of a proposed framework agreement, which includes ramping up liquid natural gas imports, a joint fund for the exploration of critical minerals and duty-free US quotas for the auto and steel industries.
However, only a handful of countries have successfully concluded trade deals with the Trump administration and those that have agreed, such as the United Kingdom, have only secured piecemeal arrangements. South Africa, like the EU, is increasingly hoping that Trump will, again, back down in the tariff war.
The gathering in Angola is the first in a series of US-Africa summits over the coming months, primarily based around commercial transactions. But it is also likely to see a queue of African countries seeking to avoid their own ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs.
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