On Friday, South Africans are due to awake to either a 30% or 40% levy on the R157 billion worth of products annually exported to the United States, the country with which South Africa currently enjoys the greater trade surplus.
This follows from a period in which the GNU government has been woefully inadequate in its efforts to address the deteriorating relationship between the two countries following the engagement in the White House on 21 May 2025.
In the more than two months that have lapsed since this engagement, South Africans have not been informed on what kind on trade deals have been mooted by the GNU and what conditions the United States has put to South Africa. The country remains in the dark in these respects.
Similarly ,South African businesses exporting to the United States, have zero clarity on the plans of the GNU. South Africa’s special envoy to the United States remains in becalmed Sandton, and currently South Africa has no Ambassador or trade team in Washington to negotiate on behalf of the country.
Amongst South Africa’s most significant export industries to the US are precious stones and metals, vehicles and vehicle parts, iron, steel, and aluminium. Just the agricultural and automotive export market to the US alone collectively employs in excess of 100 000 South Africans and the loss of these exports drives a further nail into the aspirations of unemployed South Africans looking for work.
2025 economic growth forecasts already having been revised down from 1.9% to 1.4% by National Treasury, and many believing that even these numbers are optimistic given actual economic growth figures being below 1% for the past 15 years. The fallout from the imposition of these trade tariffs is projected to reduce economic growth by a further 0.3% and, consequently, increase unemployment and the cost of living for South Africans.
As with so many other dimensions of this GNU, our country is left rudderless by a government that cannot produce a coherent thought on the direction of the country.
In the absence of any communication to provide assurance to domestic markets, it can only be deduced that there is no plan for how the GNU will mitigate the economic fallout that will be experienced by ordinary South Africans employed in industries and companies that export to the USA not to mention the impact on the already impoverished citizens whose living conditions will deteriorate further due to the impact of impending tariff implementation
ActionSA condemns President Ramaphosa and the entire GNU for their silence and lack of transparency in how they intend to address this looming crisis as this government stumbles from one disaster to another. As a result of this GNU’s incoherence, South Africans will face this crisis uninformed and more vulnerable than they were a year ago.
Rudderless GNU Silence On Looming US Trade Tariff Deadline Is Deafening
On Friday, South Africans are due to awake to either a 30% or 40% levy on the R157 billion worth of products annually exported to the United States, the country with which South Africa currently enjoys the greater trade surplus.
This follows from a period in which the GNU government has been woefully inadequate in its efforts to address the deteriorating relationship between the two countries following the engagement in the White House on 21 May 2025.
In the more than two months that have lapsed since this engagement, South Africans have not been informed on what kind on trade deals have been mooted by the GNU and what conditions the United States has put to South Africa. The country remains in the dark in these respects.
Similarly ,South African businesses exporting to the United States, have zero clarity on the plans of the GNU. South Africa’s special envoy to the United States remains in becalmed Sandton, and currently South Africa has no Ambassador or trade team in Washington to negotiate on behalf of the country.
Amongst South Africa’s most significant export industries to the US are precious stones and metals, vehicles and vehicle parts, iron, steel, and aluminium. Just the agricultural and automotive export market to the US alone collectively employs in excess of 100 000 South Africans and the loss of these exports drives a further nail into the aspirations of unemployed South Africans looking for work.
2025 economic growth forecasts already having been revised down from 1.9% to 1.4% by National Treasury, and many believing that even these numbers are optimistic given actual economic growth figures being below 1% for the past 15 years. The fallout from the imposition of these trade tariffs is projected to reduce economic growth by a further 0.3% and, consequently, increase unemployment and the cost of living for South Africans.
As with so many other dimensions of this GNU, our country is left rudderless by a government that cannot produce a coherent thought on the direction of the country.
In the absence of any communication to provide assurance to domestic markets, it can only be deduced that there is no plan for how the GNU will mitigate the economic fallout that will be experienced by ordinary South Africans employed in industries and companies that export to the USA not to mention the impact on the already impoverished citizens whose living conditions will deteriorate further due to the impact of impending tariff implementation
ActionSA condemns President Ramaphosa and the entire GNU for their silence and lack of transparency in how they intend to address this looming crisis as this government stumbles from one disaster to another. As a result of this GNU’s incoherence, South Africans will face this crisis uninformed and more vulnerable than they were a year ago.