US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and South African Trade Minister Parks Tau are expected to meet on Thursday in a bid to resolve an impasse over tariffs, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The parties will meet while a South African delegation visits New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, with the American leader falsely accusing the nation of conducting a genocide against White people.
South Africa’s trade-negotiation team has submitted a revised proposal to the Trump administration, in an effort to reach a deal and lower the 30% tariff levied on some exports from the continent’s biggest economy.
But the US hasn’t responded to the nation’s trade overtures, which included making it easier for US companies to sell chicken meat and pork in South Africa as well as a pledge to buy liquefied natural gas from the US, the African nation’s government has said.
The US trade office didn’t respond to an emailed request sent outside of normal office hours. A spokesman for South Africa’s trade department said talks with the US are “advancing,” but declined to share details.
Trump claims South Africa’s government is presiding over a genocide of White Afrikaans farmers and has offered members of that community refugee status.
He has also criticised South Africa’s Black economic empowerment laws meant to undo Apartheid-era discrimination.
In May, the US president berated South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa in an oval office meeting.
The US is South Africa’s second-biggest trade partner after China, and the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration are expected to decimate South African exports of cars and agricultural products including oranges and wine to the US.
International Monetary Fund data shows that in 2024, the countries’ two-way trade totaled $21.6 billion, with South Africa benefiting from a $7.7 billion surplus.
Meanwhile, Leo Brent Bozell III, Trump’s nominee as US ambassador to South Africa, is expected to arrive in the coming weeks, said Marc Dillard, deputy chief of the US mission in South Africa. His appointment still needs to be approved by the US Congress.
Despite the proposed talks, the chasm between the two nations remains.
Trump has in the past accused South Africa of unfair trade with the US, slashed aid to the country, expelled its ambassador and criticised South Africa’s international court case against Israel.
The US president said he won’t attend the G-20 summit being hosted by South Africa, sending Vice President JD Vance instead.
BLOOMBERG