South Africa is preparing a new trade offer to present to President Trump, hoping to appeal to his transactional approach to foreign policy and ease boiling tensions with Washington, a spokesman for South Africa’s president said this week.
The spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said in an interview that South African officials are anticipating Mr. Trump will call for an end to the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a decades-old trade agreement that has been an economic boon to the 32 African nations that it includes.
The act allows billions of dollars worth of goods — from produce to cars — from sub-Saharan Africa to enter the United States without duties. It is scheduled to expire this year but could be reauthorized by Congress.
Although officials in South Africa hope the program will be renewed, they plan to offer the United States a bilateral deal that would increase trade in sectors such as energy, Mr. Magwenya said.
A future without the African Growth and Opportunity Act would represent a significant shift for the continent’s largest economy. South Africa has for years lobbied against threats to expel it from the program on the grounds that its economy had grown too advanced.
South African officials argue that the African Growth and Opportunity Act has kept businesses confident in the South African economy, helped maintain stability across the continent and fostered a healthy relationship with the United States.
Relations between South Africa and the United States were upended last month when Mr. Trump accused the country of using a new land law to discriminate against white citizens. President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa fired back, accusing Mr. Trump of spreading misinformation.
The land bill allows the South African government to take privately owned land without providing compensation, though supporters say any such seizures would be rare and subject to strict judicial review.
In response, Mr. Trump signed an executive order freezing American aid to South Africa. The order also criticized Mr. Ramaphosa’s government for accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and for developing a nuclear agreement with Iran.
In the weeks since the executive order was signed, South African leaders have debated how to respond.
Mr. Ramaphosa’s administration decided a renegotiated trade deal with the United States — South Africa’s second-largest trading partner behind China — could lead to a thaw.
“When you take a step back and you put the emotions aside, you realize there’s an opportunity here to reset the relationship,” Mr. Magwenya said. “There is enough substance from a trade point of view for us to be able to do that.”
One option under consideration is to increase cooperation between the two countries on gas, with the United States getting more access to gas exploration in South Africa and South Africa sourcing more of its gas from America, he said. The proposal also would include a plan for what South Africa would consider fair tariffs, he said.
While South African officials are betting that a favorable trade deal will convince Mr. Trump to work with them, serious obstacles remain.
Emma Louise Powell, a South African lawmaker who met with the Trump administration and members of Congress in Washington last week, said she had been warned South Africa should expect further punitive actions from the United States.
Ms. Powell led a delegation sent by the Democratic Alliance, the second-largest party in South Africa’s governing coalition. It was not an official government mission, but was intended to help de-escalate tensions and learn what South Africa could do to repair the relationship with the United States, Ms. Powell said.
The delegation did not receive a definitive answer, Ms. Powell said, but “it is clear that a significant amount of work needs to be done to rebuild trust.”
During Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s presidency, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle called on the United States to punish South Africa for its foreign policy decisions, including maintaining ties to Hamas and Russia. They also criticized the country for supporting Iran’s bid to join BRICS, the economic coalition with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The Trump administration has taken its frustration with South Africa even further. It has embraced the cause of some white South Africans who argue that they are discriminated against by laws meant to address stark racial inequalities lingering from apartheid.
Mr. Magwenya, the spokesman, said that when South Africa has a trade deal to offer Mr. Trump, the country would also engage the administration on other contentious issues, such as the land bill. South African officials believe a favorable economic deal will convince Mr. Trump that it is in the interest of the United States to maintain close trade ties, despite disagreements over other policies, Mr. Magwenya said.
In 2023, South Africa exported $13.9 billion worth of goods to the United States, with just under a quarter of it going through the preferential African trade program. Although South Africa takes in much less — $7.2 billion in 2023 — from the United States than it sends out, it was the biggest importer of American goods in sub-Saharan Africa.
