Serious blow to South Africa

United States President Donald Trump has imposed 30% tariffs on South Africa, calling the country one of the worst offenders.

On Wednesday, 02 April 2025, Trump announced a global 10% tariff on all imports, and higher rates for a slew of ‘worst offenders’, including South Africa.

He said the United States would implement the long-talked-about reciprocal tariff structure to balance trade and put America first.

Trump claimed countries worldwide were exploiting trade with the United States and cheating by running massive surpluses.

He said they achieved these surpluses by imposing steep tariffs and ‘hidden’ tariffs through value-added tax (VAT) and other measures.

During the briefing, the US President pulled out a chart showing the new tariffs that will be imposed on a long list of countries, including China, the EU, India, Japan, and South Korea.

These countries were dubbed the “worst offenders”. Notably, South Africa is listed among these countries.

While the US president initially discussed fully reciprocal tariffs before the announcement, he said the United States would be kind and implement “discounted” rates.

For example, while Trump claims China is imposing tariffs of 67% on the US, the US would charge a “discounted” rate of only 34%.

For South Africa, Trump claimed that the tariffs on the United States amounted to 60%. In turn, it will implement a “discounted” 30% tariff on the country.

“A lot of bad things are happening in South Africa,” Trump said. “We send them billions of dollars, but we had to cut their funding because bad things are happening.”

Trump said that if any country wanted to be exempt from the tariffs, it would simply have to move its production to the United States.

The president also announced a global 25% tariff on all imported vehicles, which will take effect from midnight in the United States.

The reciprocal tariffs will become effective on 9 April 2025.

Trump tariffs