SA’s cool response to Trump’s tariff tactics

The sound you hear in the background is another white myth crumbling under the reality of facts.

US President Donald Trump did not punish South Africa with tariffs because of the government’s alleged anti-white racism or a white genocide.

He used the same stick to beat us as he used on the rest of the world – friend and foe alike.

The global tariffs tossed out by Trump this month were actually not based at all on a country’s policy, but rather on a cock-eyed formula which used a specific country’s trade surplus with America as a basis for calculating tariffs.

And, as Trump confirmed yesterday, those tariffs were but an initial hardball negotiating ploy.

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In announcing a 90-day hold on the tariffs, Trump said that all those countries which did not impose retaliatory tariffs on the US would be charged the flat 10% levy. The final decision will be taken after the hold on executing the changes.

If South Africa’s dues are reduced to 10%, therefore, it will have had nothing to do with any change of policy by the ANC… The 10% tariff will still have an impact because it will, effectively, end the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa), under which certain SA goods have tariff-free access to US markets.

Cars and car parts originating here and imported into the US are already subject to Trump’s 25% tariff… which also effectively cancels out Agoa. In the end, it was probably wise for the ANC particularly – some of whose members might face later individual US sanctions – to keep a cool head when dealing with Trump.

He loves the world bowing before him and that is what we have done.

However, whether he still pursues his SA political change agenda – or whether that was another PR and diplomatic feint – remains to be seen.

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