{"id":93433,"date":"2025-09-10T03:52:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T03:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=93433"},"modified":"2025-09-10T03:52:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T03:52:00","slug":"south-africa-has-sent-officials-to-us-for-trade-talks-president-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=93433","title":{"rendered":"South Africa has sent officials to US for trade talks, president says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Africa has sent officials to the United States to prepare for trade negotiations after attempting for months to strike a deal with the Trump administration to roll back steep tariffs, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

U.S. President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0imposed a\u00a030% tariff\u00a0on imports from Africa\u2019s most developed economy last month after Ramaphosa\u2019s government made several unsuccessful attempts to propose a trade agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Presidency and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition have sent representatives \u2026 who are preparing for the further formal negotiations with the United States government, which should be taking place in just a few days,\u201d Ramaphosa told parliament.<\/p>\n

He said the South African officials would meet representatives of Trump\u2019s administration, lawmakers and business figures in New York and Washington.<\/p>\n

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately respond to a Reuters request to confirm the talks.<\/p>\n

In the days before the tariffs were implemented, South African officials said Washington had not responded to their offers or come to the negotiating table. They submitted a\u00a0revised proposal for trade deal\u00a0a month ago.<\/p>\n

Ramaphosa said South Africa\u2019s leverage was its natural resources, particularly critical minerals, and that discussions with the U.S. were revolving around that.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven as we may well want to export the critical minerals, we want them to leave the shores of South Africa as finished products \u2026 So that is the type of discussion that we are having with them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s relationship with the U.S. has reached a diplomatic low this year over a number of issues, including Trump\u2019s unfounded accusations of persecution against the white minority. Those claims prompted the creation of a refugee programme\u00a0for white South Africans.<\/p>\n

Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen\u00a0told Reuters\u00a0last month that to secure lower tariffs South Africa might need to address some of Trump\u2019s criticisms, including his opposition to affirmative action laws aimed at redressing apartheid-era racial discrimination.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"SouthSouth Africa has sent officials to the United States to prepare for trade negotiations after attempting for months to strike a deal with the Trump administration to roll back steep tariffs, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1972,10,9,1898,2684],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-politics","category-popular","category-south-africa","category-trump-administration"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}