South Africa’s trade minister, Parks Tau, said after discussions with United States officials that he was “cautiously optimistic” the two countries would reach agreement on a trade deal.
Tau led a South African team to Washington, hoping to get a deal that reduces the 30% tariffs most of the country’s exports currently face on entry into the US.
He told the Daily Maverick that the discussions had been tough, and he could not anticipate what the outcome would be. “But I am optimistic because there’s a sense that we’d want to [reach] an agreement – that we’d want to find each other.”
He would not go into the specifics of what he said were still confidential talks. But he said the two sides were now getting into detail and the mood was positive. “In many ways, [we are] cautiously optimistic, because it is when you get into the detail that the issues matter most”.
Tau met US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and members of Congress in Washington, following “intensive” three-day discussions by senior officials.
These are preparatory talks, paving the way for the real negotiations that lie ahead. The teams had discussed South Africa’s revised offer, and the initial US response to it.
“We subsequently agreed that the US would provide us with a revised text based on some of the issues that we raised, and we anticipate that would arrive early in the next week and we would be able to then give a formal response – on which basis there would be negotiations and engagements,” Tau continued.
After the US text is received, the South African response will be based on departmental discussions and a Cabinet decision. That is when the parties “knuckle down and get into the negotiations,” Tau explained.
As FairPlay has noted repeatedly, much of the Trump administration’s hostility towards South Africa stems from South Africa’s increasing embrace of Russia, China and Iran – countries that are regarded as a threat to US interests.
In addition, after the US expulsion in March this year of Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa has had no ambassador in Washinton to hold regular discussions with US officials and report back to the government, or to help correct misperceptions about South Africa.
A report in BusinessTech this week claimed that South Africa had, in fact, had “no functioning embassy in Washington for over 10 years”.
The accusation came from US-based South African Andre Pienaar, who told the State of the Nation podcast that it was in South Africa’s interests to re-establish strong relations with the US.
Image: World Economic Forum / swiss-image.ch / Photo Jolanda Flubacher. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
