PREVIEW
EU seeks to deepen trade relationship with South Africa in response to US protectionism
President Cyril Ramaphosa faces crunch trade talks with United States President Donald Trump’s administration next week, with talks expected on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York that starts today.
Pretoria has confirmed that preliminary talks involving Ramaphosa’s trade adviser Alistair Ruiter and between Trade Minister Parks Tau and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have taken place over the past week.
The US imposed 30% duties on South African exports on 8 August, which could deal a crippling economic blow (AC Vol 66 No 16, Tariff calamity deepens rift with Washington).
The European Union, meanwhile, has held out an olive branch on trade. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a meeting of German business leaders on 18 September that her team was in trade talks with Pretoria as part of the EU’s attempts to reduce its own reliance on transatlantic trade.
The first priority in the US talks is for Ramaphosa’s government to cut the 30% tariff rate for key South African products such as wine, citrus fruits and motor vehicles, though the latter may be trickier because of Trump’s desire to make the US car industry more competitive.
Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, Ramaphosa’s main coalition partner, has indicated that the government may have to give ground on some of its affirmative action laws, such as black economic empowerment, employment equity and land expropriation laws, to curry favour with Trump (AC Vol 66 No 11, Why Musk and Rupert hold key to the Ramaphosa-Trump summit).
That would be an extremely bitter pill for Ramaphosa and his African National Congress (ANC) party to swallow. Though Ramaphosa has cancelled joint military exercises with Russia and China scheduled for November in the hope that Trump will attend a G20 summit in Johannesburg the same month, he has refused to unpick national policy (Dispatches, 8/9/25, Pretoria cancels naval drills with Russia and China due to hosting G20 summit).
Ramaphosa told ANC councillors on Monday that the forthcoming US visit was part of a broader strategy to normalise trade relations with Washington.
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