30% USA TARIFFS GO AHEAD

EFFECTIVE 7 AUGUST 2025 

Dear employer

On Thursday night, the United States announced that it will proceed to impose the 30% tariff on South African exports to the United States, effective from 7 August 2025.

The executive order issued, outlines new modified tariffs for over 60 countries; however, South Africa’s tariff was unchanged and remained at 30%, suggesting that South Africa’s last minute trade-proposals and concessions were not accepted by the USA.

Meanwhile, hours before this USA announcement, the South African Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) announced urgent interventions in a scramble to protect jobs. Among these was the establishment of an export support desk aimed at promoting export diversification into alternate markets for affected exporters.

This is too little, too late and will do nothing to alleviate the irreversible harm these tariffs will cause to the South African economy.

The South African government’s steadfastness on retaining racial policies, its stance against Israel and a slew of other transgressions, all of which the USA vehemently opposes, remain a major contributor to the strained bilateral relations between the countries, which has complicated the efforts of securing a beneficial trade arrangement with the USA.

For more information

NEASA Media Department

media@neasa.co.za

NEASA ... the only labour law specialist an employer will ever need.