US President Donald Trump’s administration would not be granting an exemption from new, higher, import tariffs to this country’s steel and aluminium products.
According to the reports the American tariffs could lead to the loss of 7 500 jobs. Also in the early 1990s, South African government-subsidised exports to its neighbours where Zimbabwe saw thousands of jobs lost in the battery, tyre and textile industries in that country, which played a role in triggering that country’s economic decline.
At the same time, SA was sending artificially cheap goods north of the Limpopo and imposing harsh tariffs on Zimbabwean imports like clothing in order to protect its own garment industry which has, ironically, since been swamped by Chinese imports.
SA needs to learn to develop alternative markets if it is to survive as an industrial nation.
In spite of the moves towards combined global markets, many countries still have protective systems in place and they will offer preferential deals to those nations they observe as their friends.
Over the years, SA has taken stand as a government against different aspects of US foreign policy and so the Trump White House does not regard South Africa in an especially friendly way because. Also, South Africa is almost unrelated to Washington.
