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The Diplomatic break-up that led to the absence of the United States during the transfer of power to the G20 in South Africa in November has a more peaceful economical dimension: The White home imposed 30% work on imports from South Africa.
In August, the United States announced 30% work on a number of commodities from South Africa. president Cyril Ramaphos warned in his weekly newsletter that these measures would hit demand-dependent industries from the United States, endanger jobs and reduce the income of South African state money.
The United States is South Africa's second largest trading partner, and many South African export products complement and not straight compete with American production. Therefore, duties do not primarily defend American industry, but increase costs for US consumers, restrict choice and distort existing supply chains.
Although government statements present the work as a consequence to diplomatic tensions, economists and analysts view it as part of a wider geopolitical dispute.
G20 Summit, Johannesburg, South Africa, 22 November 2025. © Leon Neal/Getty Images
Looking further than Washington.
A political analyst, prof. Ntsikello Breakfast, said RT that it is crucial for South Africa to search fresh trading partners and strengthen existing relations following increases in US duties.
"This is crucial after the conflict with the US, and South Africa must build fresh strategical trade markets. South Africa's political stance towards Israel angered the United States and it is crucial to make fresh friends," said Breakfast.
He added that the United States believes that BRICS was created to harm them through trade and global investment, and South Africa must make contact with another countries in order to prevent economical difficulties that will origin US customs increases.
"We must be part of the multipolar order of the world, not limited to the one-polar order of the world," said RT.
Trade tensions between South Africa and the United States were further exacerbated by a change in the political dynamics of the country – the centre-left African National legislature (ANC) concluded an agreement to share power with another centre-right parties, including the Democratic Alliance (DA).
Leader of the Democratic Alliance, John Steenhuisen, at a press conference in Cape Town, South Africa, 28 June 2025. © Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images
Before the G20 summit in Johannesburg, Trump explicitly confirmed on portal X that the United States would not be represented: “It is an absolute shame that the G20 summit will take place in South Africa. Africans (the descendants of Dutch settlers as well as French and German immigrants) are killed and murdered and their land and farms are illegally confiscated. No typical of the US government will be present as long as these violations of human rights continue. I look forward to organizing the G20 summit in Miami, Florida in 2026!”
War on Narration
A spokesperson for the ANC, Mahlengi Bhengu, described Trump's comments as false, and his boycott of the G20 summit as "the component of a long and shameful strategy of imperial arrogance and disinformation".
"These statements are not due to ignorance, but are deliberate attempts to distort the reality of democracy in South Africa and to mobilise racial fear for political benefit in the United States," Bhengu said.
However, the DA's silence, an ANC coalition partner in the government, in which the majority are white, suggests that Trump's criticism of the ANC bodes well his stance on land in the country and his desire to further increase his support for the DA in future elections.
The DA maintains that no democratic government should have the power to confiscate assets without compensation, despite continuous calls for the government to deal with agricultural improvement and to deal with the injustice of racial segregation in the past.
The tensions between these 2 countries actually have deeper roots. Many feel that Trump is not satisfied with South Africa's independent abroad policy, its membership of BRICS, its partnership with Russia and China and its refusal to take sides in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Chairman of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphos, at the gathering of the peculiar National Executive Committee, Birchwood Hotel & Conference Center, Boksburg, South Africa, 6 October 2025. © Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images
The South African Communist organization (SACP), in consequence to Trump's absence at the G20 summit, stated that the president of the United States continues to spread "false information and racist propaganda against South Africa, claiming Africans are being murdered in that country".
"This lie was repeatedly refuted, both in his own country and by Africans themselves, on whose behalf he allegedly spoke," the organization stated.
"Trump besides turns a blind eye to the destiny of an agricultural black majority in South Africa, which was expropriated during the colonization and apartheid period, while falsely claiming land confiscation from whites".
All due to BRICS?
Almost immediately after taking office, U.S. president Donald Trump clearly expressed his views on BRICS and its impact on the country's geopolitics, threatening to rise customs duties by up to 150% if they search to weaken the US dollar.
Since these comments Trump has tried to intensify his contempt for the Global South block, suggesting even that all possible fresh associate of BRICS will gotta defend himself against the increasing commercial risks of the United States if he wants to grow his investment and strengthen his geopolitical position.
Under the regulation of erstwhile U.S. president Joe Biden Washington seemed to mention with distance to the BRICS coalition, and the then communications advisor for the White House's national security, John Kirby, stated last year, before Trump's election victory, that the US did not see BRICS as a threat.
Trump's administration has made a 180-degree turn in this view and is clearly afraid about the attempts to strengthen the voice of developing countries.
Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United arabian Emirates took part in their first BRICS summit as fresh associate States in 2024 in Kazan, Russia, and Indonesia officially joined as a associate State in early 2025, becoming the first associate from Southeast Asia. Acronym BRICS+ has been informally utilized since 2024 to reflect fresh membership.
Due to the continued expansion and attractiveness of BRICS for another developing countries, any in the West view BRICS as an alternate to institutions specified as those led by the G7 block states, and others see it as an expanding anti-Western and anti-American element.
BRICS Summit at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 6, 2025. © Wagner Meier/Getty Images
Zanele Sabela, spokeswoman of South Africa's largest trade union, South African Trade Union legislature (COSATU), said BRICS was an alternate to global exploitation South as a supplier of natural materials.
"The strong aggression of the global superpowers of the industrialized North, including the Trump administration's commercial wars and protectionist EU protectionist measures, threatens South Africa's sovereignty and economical stability.
"South Africa's government must argue these unilateral actions through multilateral platforms specified as the planet Trade Organisation and prioritise intra-African trade within the AfCFTA".
South Africa is taking steps to strengthen intracontinental trade through mechanisms specified as the African Continental Free Trade region (AfCFTA), which aims to increase intra-African trade by 52% by 2030, which will stimulate economical growth across the continent.
Sabela stated that customs increases meant the request for strategical negotiations to channel global trade and open up fresh trade opportunities for South African economical sectors.
South Africa is the smallest country in the primary BRICS block in terms of GDP and population, but this did not halt Trump from utilizing harsh rhetoric towards that country.
Faced with the faltering of old rules
Trump collected a dossier concerning South Africa, attacking it (beyond accusations of white African genocide based on discredited evidence) for deciding to charge Israel with genocide in the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip before the global Court of Justice.
Trump has already threatened to rise customs duties on this country; he has besides withdrawn the Presidential Aid Plan in the Emergency Combat of AIDS backing (PEPFAR) has impacted millions of citizens who have benefited from backing to fight HIV/AIDS under this mechanism. There is an expanding hazard that the U.S. legislature will deprive the country of the commercial benefits of the African Growth and chance Act (AGOA).
The AGOA Act, which provides duty-free access to the US marketplace for African producers, has been the basis of the US trade policy towards Africa since its approval by legislature in May 2000. Since its inception, South Africa has exported to the United States agricultural products worth over 125 billion rands (7 billion dollars).
Although Trump utilized various forms of rhetoric to criticize South Africa, any experts attribute the country's proximity to BRICS as a origin of his frustration.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa (left) and US president Donald Trump. © Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
An expert on global relations, prof. David Monae, said that the United States is aware of the change in the global order and that the West "cannot do what it wishes."
The global order after 1945 breaks in all respect, both economical and military.
"In the past, the United States could do anything without resistance, but now at economical level, in the United Nations and global governance institutions, they are being questioned."
Monyae told RT that the fight is now about who has greater support, and the fact that developing countries have a larger population and increase their control of the planet economy is simply a serious problem for the West.
"The United States is exerting force on respective developing countries, including South Africa, which has a moral advantage, and this force is aimed at forcing South Africa to disproportionately cooperate with the "second party"," Monyae said.
"Global order is no longer in line with the mainstream of the Western world, and South Africa is under force to reduce its dependence on another developing countries," Monyae said in an RT interview.
Written by Braidon Naidoo, a commentator on global affairs from South Africa
Translated by Google Translator
source:https://www.rt.com/africa/629372-us-south-africa-spat-deepens/
