Wait-and-see to Trump’s hardline

When the hostage taker is ranting and waving around a loaded gun, the softly-softly approach is probably the best.

And so it is with US President Donald Trump who, despite his supposed hardline stance on tariffs, has left a lot still hanging in the air.

That is why some in South Africa are adopting a waitand-see attitude to Trump’s latest communication that the threatened tariff of 30% will go ahead on all goods imported into the US from South Africa.

Nothing much has changed since earlier announcements and Trump’s flawed take on countries like SA “exploiting” the US, because there is a trade imbalance, is still there.

Experts say Trump’s contention that our country – and most of the rest of the world – imposes unfair trade restrictions on the US is unfounded – and that the whole tariff regime proposed by Trump is merely an exercise in global power politics.

ALSO READ: Trump’s new 30% tariff less about trade and more about power

Already, steel, aluminium and vehicle exports from this country to America have been hit with a 25% tariff, much like that imposed on other similar producers around the world.

That has led to valid concerns that locally based car assemblers who export to the US, such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz, could be forced to cut back production and retrench workers.

Mercedes has already shut down its plant in East London for some weeks for what it says is plant maintenance… but the connection is obvious.

Citrus exporters in the Western and Northern Cape, who sell most of their produce in the US, will also probably be priced out of the market there.

They could, in turn, dump the produce on their own domestic market, which would be good for consumers but bad for the sector at large.

ALSO READ: Ramaphosa disputes Trump’s 30% tariff claim as ‘not accurate’

While we’re waiting and seeing, it’s not a bad idea to hedge our bets and explore markets other than the US.