South Africa’s trade department has drafted proposed regulations that will allow exporters to collaborate to ease the impact of 30% tariffs the US levied on imports from the nation.
The regulations, which the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition published for public comment on Tuesday, will stay in place for five years, it said.
Under the proposed regulations exporters will be permitted to coordinate and share shipping and marketing costs, collaborate on the building of export infrastructure and will be allowed to jointly negotiate export protocols.
The planned rules will help companies avoid breaching antitrust laws.
The measures are being put in place “to mitigate the economic impact of the increased tariffs and to contribute to the resilience and growth of South African exports,” the department said in a government notice.
The tariffs on South Africa, among the highest levied on any nation, threaten to cut thousands of jobs in the country’s agricultural and automotive industries.
The US is South Africa’s biggest trade partner after China.
Any collaboration will need to be approved by the country’s competition authorities.
US tariffs are here to stay
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and his US counterpart Donald Trump previously spoke by phone on the eve of the introduction of Washington’s punitive new tariff regime.
The call signaled an effort by the authorities in Pretoria to invigorate negotiations on a new trade deal with its biggest partner after China.
The two nations have failed to make substantive progress on an accord since their leaders met at the White House in May.
Their call on Wednesday last week coincided with a meeting between South Africa’s foreign minister, Ronald Lamola, and US Chargé d’Affaires David Greene — currently the top US diplomat in Pretoria.
“The two leaders undertook to continue with further engagements recognizing the various trade negotiations the US is currently involved in,” it said.
“Respective trade negotiating teams will take forward more detailed discussions.”
“Today I met the @USEmbassySA chargé d’affaires a.i Mr Greene we had an open, frank and constructive engagement on issues of mutual interest and concern.”
The US imposed 30% tariffs on imports from South Africa, the highest duty charged on goods from any sub-Saharan nation, as part of a shakeup of its relationship with its trading partners.
Relations between Pretoria and Washington have deteriorated since Trump returned to power in January, with his administration criticizing South African policies aimed at redressing racial inequality, the country’s close ties with nations including Russia and Iran, and Pretoria taking legal action against Israel — a key US ally — over its war on Gaza.
While talks on a new deal are continuing, South Africa won’t change any of its laws at the behest of the US, Minister in the Presidency Khumbuzo Ntshavheni told reporters at a briefing last Thursday.
“The transformation agenda of this country is non-negotiable,” she said, referring to legislation that aims to empower Black South Africans who were systematically excluded from the economy during the apartheid era.
South Africa’s government is modeling the impact of the tariffs on employment if the government is unable to achieve a more-favorable deal.
The trade department estimates that 30,000 jobs will be lost across all sectors, while the central bank has warned that more than 100,000 jobs in the auto and agriculture industries may be at risk.
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