{"id":68290,"date":"2026-02-06T22:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/68290\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T22:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:41:14","slug":"facing-high-trump-tariffs-south-africa-signs-framework-agreement-for-trade-deal-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/68290\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing high Trump tariffs, South Africa signs framework agreement for trade deal with China"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) \u2014 China<\/a> and South Africa signed a framework agreement for a new trade deal on Friday as Africa\u2019s leading economy looks to other options following the high import tariffs<\/a> imposed on it by the U.S. and its diplomatic fallout<\/a> with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s Ministry of Trade and Industry said the agreement would start negotiations over a deal that would give some South African goods, such as fruit, duty-free access to the Chinese market. The ministry said it expected the trade deal to be finalized by the end of March.<\/p>\n

In return, the trade ministry said China will get enhanced investment opportunities in South Africa, where its car sales<\/a> have seen rapid growth.<\/p>\n

The U.S. slapped 30% duties on some South African goods under U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s reciprocal tariffs policy<\/a> \u2014 one of the higher rates applied across the world. South Africa has said it is still negotiating with the U.S. for a better deal.<\/p>\n

The China-South Africa deal follows others looking for alternatives to U.S. partnership<\/a> in the face of Trump\u2019s aggressive trade policies.<\/p>\n

The announcement on the negotiations between China and South Africa came days after Trump issued a short-term renewal of a longstanding free-trade agreement<\/a> between the U.S. and African nations. The U.S. extended the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which South Africa is a major beneficiary of, just until the end of the year and indicated it would be modified to fit the administration\u2019s America First policy.<\/p>\n

China is already South Africa\u2019s largest trade partner for both imports and exports, while Chinese economic influence across the African continent<\/a> continues to grow and it dominates in the extraction of Africa\u2019s critical minerals<\/a> that are key components for new high-tech products.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa looks forward to working with China in a friendly, pragmatic and flexible manner,\u201d the trade ministry said.<\/p>\n

Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau, who traveled to China to sign the agreement, said the deal would benefit South Africa\u2019s mining, agriculture, renewable energy and technology sectors.<\/p>\n

U.S.-South Africa diplomatic ties have plunged to their worst point in decades after the Trump administration accused South Africa of pursuing an anti-American foreign policy and allowing the violent persecution of a white minority group at home. South Africa\u2019s government has denied allegations that white Afrikaner farmers<\/a> are being killed in a widespread effort to seize their land as baseless.<\/p>\n

Trump has also barred South Africa<\/a> from taking part in meetings of the Group of 20 rich and developing nations this year in the U.S. <\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s biggest exports to China are gold, iron ore and platinum-group metals, while Chinese cars have quickly grown their market share in South Africa. Industry groups estimate Chinese brands have grown from around 2.8% of the South African market in 2020 to between 11% and 15% last year.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s BYD overtook Elon Musk\u2019s Tesla<\/a> in 2025 as the world\u2019s biggest electric vehicle maker.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Africa news: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/africa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) \u2014 China and South Africa signed a framework agreement for a new trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[63,83,9468,750,262,3671,762,3412,8515,789,39359,261,21302,131,4637,39358,32016,2679,3344,242],"class_list":{"0":"post-68290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-china-government","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-elon-musk","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-government-policy","16":"tag-inc","17":"tag-international-trade","18":"tag-metals-and-mining","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-send-to-apple-news","21":"tag-south-africa","22":"tag-south-africa-government","23":"tag-tariffs-and-global-trade","24":"tag-tesla","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-government","27":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116026099924335030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}