The South African government says it will continue to engage the US government.

Today, International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola and Minister of Trade and Industry Parks Tau will outline how South Africa is going to engage President Donald Trump’s administration.

International Relations Director General Zane Dangor says the imposition of tariffs on some African countries participating in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) does not mean the trade agreement itself needs to be renegotiated.

“The trade concerns are something that every sherpa has raised. How do we make international trade fairer.”

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Meanwhile, the Agricultural Business Chamber (AgBiz) has questioned the methodology behind the tariff calculations of the 30 percent tariff imposed by the US on South Africa.

This follows President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff spree that saw him impose double-digit tariff hikes on a large number of US trading partners, including South Africa, on his so-called liberation day on Wednesday.

AgBiz fruit desk manager Wolfe Braude says our problem with that methodology is, and any economists are saying the same thing, these are not based on traditional economics, or calculations that are used.

“This appears to be unfortunately, fairly arbitrary one size fits all, and you end up with these weird distortions where Lesotho, is now down for a tariff of 50 percent. The problem is 30 percent is a high number to try to pass down any sort of buying chain, or pass on to retailers, or retailers pass on to consumers and it is a very quick shock, and there is not really any way to offset much of this.”

PODCAST | AGBIZ questions methodology behind US tariff calculations: