By Semafor Africa
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
US President Donald Trump’s overhaul of Washington’s tariff policy has been a “wake-up call” for South Africa, driving the country to strengthen trade relationships with the rest of the world, its leader said.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said his officials had been reaching out to trading partners in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America in order to deepen ties.
But he acknowledged that the US, South Africa’s second-largest trading partner after China, remained crucial: “We want to retain that [relationship], but we also want to diversify, because it’s dangerous to depend only on a few countries.”
Ramaphosa, who was speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, is facing not only 30% tariffs on his country’s exports to the US, but also next week’s likely expiration of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a preferential trade deal between the US and African nations.
Ramaphosa again voiced his support for AGOA to continue and said his country’s trade representatives had been in talks with US officials.
— Yinka Adegoke
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[SRC] https://blackstarnews.com/south-african-president-ramaphosa-trump-tariffs-a-wake-up-call/
