South Africa Is Not Planning To Retaliate Against Trump's Tariffs

Trump imposed a 31 tariff on US imports from South Africa on Wednesday when he announced a 10 baseline tariff on all imports and higher targeted duties on dozens of countries.

The US is South Africas second largest bilateral trading partner after China.

South Africa has said previously that it wants to agree a bilateral trade deal with Trumps team. That looks to be a tall order, however, after the US presidents repeated attacks on South Africa since his return to the White House in January.

To say we will impose reciprocal tariffs without first understanding how the US arrived at 31 would be counterproductive, trade minister Parks Tau told a press conference, saying South Africas average tariff on imports was 7.6.

Foreign affairs minister Ronald Lamola, meanwhile, said Trumps tariffs effectively nullified the benefits African countries had enjoyed under the African Growth and Opportunity Act Agoa.