{"id":18740,"date":"2026-02-07T23:22:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T23:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/facing-high-trump-tariffs-south-africa-signs-framework-agreement-for-trade-deal-with-china\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T23:22:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T23:22:25","slug":"facing-high-trump-tariffs-south-africa-signs-framework-agreement-for-trade-deal-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/facing-high-trump-tariffs-south-africa-signs-framework-agreement-for-trade-deal-with-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing high Trump tariffs, South Africa signs framework agreement for trade deal with China"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<p>                                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1770394846000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\">                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template>                    <span data-date><\/span>                <\/bsp-timestamp>            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>                                    <bsp-page-actions>                            <\/bsp-page-actions>                                                            <\/div>\n<div>\n<p>CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) &mdash; <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/china-trump-europe-allies-trade-greenland-ff445f3c6e2c52d6229d05441aae23f0\">China<\/a><\/span>  and South Africa signed a framework agreement for a new trade deal on Friday as Africa&rsquo;s leading economy looks to other options following <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/south-africa-tariffs-trump-citrus-import-farmers-ca9ecce2bf5d20ef1cc9a283ecaf842a\">the high import tariffs<\/a><\/span>  imposed on it by the U.S. and <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-ramaphosa-south-africa-9ce43dd5a9cd58e912653c99a8ab1944\">its diplomatic fallout<\/a><\/span>  with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa&rsquo;s Ministry of Trade and Industry said the agreement would start negotiations over a deal that would give some South African goods, such as fruit, duty-free access to the Chinese market. The ministry said it expected the trade deal to be finalized by the end of March.<\/p>\n<p>In return, the trade ministry said China will get enhanced investment opportunities in South Africa, where <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/china-auto-sales-ev-tariffs-871137ad17b9e491e14da0e6de1e1cc6\">its car sales<\/a><\/span>  have seen rapid growth.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. slapped 30% duties on some South African goods under U.S. President Donald Trump&rsquo;s <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-economy-inflation-tariffs-gdp-fact-check-fc415e879519f14ea5219f00a97994f4\">reciprocal tariffs policy<\/a><\/span>  &mdash; one of the higher rates applied across the world. South Africa has said it is still negotiating with the U.S. for a better deal.<\/p>\n<p>The China-South Africa deal follows others looking for <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/india-eu-modi-trade-wine-auto-74b8744b2ef562d2e820b238e6ce8d38\">alternatives to U.S. partnership<\/a><\/span>  in the face of Trump&rsquo;s aggressive trade policies.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement on the negotiations between China and South Africa came days after Trump issued a short-term renewal of <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/us-africa-trade-agoa-trump-b8dfadda3ca9551025606fe83c1cba34\">a longstanding free-trade agreement<\/a><\/span>  between the U.S. and African nations. The U.S. extended the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which South Africa is a major beneficiary of, just until the end of the year and indicated it would be modified to fit the administration&rsquo;s America First policy.<\/p>\n<p>China is already South Africa&rsquo;s largest trade partner for both imports and exports, while Chinese economic influence <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/china-africa-focac-forum-summit-xi-fef65ceff06876a1acd578cfe6c1798a\">across the African continent<\/a><\/span>  continues to grow and it dominates in the extraction of <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/zambia-china-critical-minerals-mining-us-2a74961247a3af62a6db9e49a9b01805\">Africa&rsquo;s critical minerals<\/a><\/span>  that are key components for new high-tech products.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;South Africa looks forward to working with China in a friendly, pragmatic and flexible manner,&rdquo; the trade ministry said.<\/p>\n<p>Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau, who traveled to China to sign the agreement, said the deal would benefit South Africa&rsquo;s mining, agriculture, renewable energy and technology sectors.<\/p>\n<p>U.S.-South Africa diplomatic ties have plunged to their worst point in decades after the Trump administration accused South Africa of pursuing an anti-American foreign policy and allowing the violent persecution of a white minority group at home. South Africa&rsquo;s government has denied allegations that <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/refugee-trump-south-africa-afrikaner-4783f628520a772e7b12eecf9e31159c\">white Afrikaner farmers<\/a><\/span>  are being killed in a widespread effort to seize their land as baseless.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has also <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-g20-summit-south-africa-afrikaners-01daffc399d35b84013693ef652ecc4d\">barred South Africa<\/a><\/span>  from taking part in meetings of the Group of 20 rich and developing nations this year in the U.S. <\/p>\n<p>South Africa&rsquo;s biggest exports to China are gold, iron ore and platinum-group metals, while Chinese cars have quickly grown their market share in South Africa. Industry groups estimate Chinese brands have grown from around 2.8% of the South African market in 2020 to between 11% and 15% last year.<\/p>\n<p>China&rsquo;s BYD <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/tesla-sales-musk-trump-deliveries-robotaxi-6d60715babde97b3b1a8e2416f4065ca\">overtook Elon Musk&rsquo;s Tesla<\/a><\/span>  in 2025 as the world&rsquo;s biggest electric vehicle maker.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP Africa news: <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/africa\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/africa<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/china-south-africa-trade-tariffs-trump-26d2b3798716a5c0d7661ad714843382\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) &mdash; China and South Africa signed a framework agreement for a new trade deal on Friday as Africa&rsquo;s leading economy looks to other options following the high import tariffs imposed on it by the U.S. and its diplomatic fallout with the Trump administration. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}