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South Africa still seeks US trade deal days before tariff deadline

By Thomson Reuters Jul 29, 2025 | 9:11 AM

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s trade ministry said on Tuesday that it still wanted to negotiate a trade deal with the United States, before a 30% tariff on its exports to the U.S. is due to kick in on Friday.

Pretoria has been tight-lipped about its negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration ahead of the August 1 deadline, which comes as the two countries’ relationship has deteriorated over South Africa’s domestic race policy and its genocide case against Israel, which Israel denies.

In a statement, the trade ministry said it was still waiting for “substantive feedback from our U.S. counterparts on the final status on our framework deal”.

(Reporting by Alexander Winning;Editing by Peter Graff)