Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies has confirmed that South Africa is willing to accede to quotas on its steel and aluminium exports to the US as part of the country’s ongoing bid to be excluded from tariffs imposed on March 23, following a proclamation signed by President Donald Trump.

South Africa has already made a formal submission requesting exclusion from the 25% tariff increase on steel articles and the 10% duty imposed on aluminium products, emphasising that its low export volumes pose no threat to US national security, or to the US steel and aluminium industries.

South Africa’s steel exports, of 330 000 t in 2017, represented less than 1% of total US steel imports, while South Africa’s exports of aluminium products were equivalent to about 1.6% of American aluminium imports. South Africa exported 120 000 t of aluminium ingots to the US last year and 52 000 t of semifabricated aluminium product.

Applications for exclusion are catered for in Trump’s proclamation, with Canada and Mexico having been immediately excluded from the protective measures. Exemptions were subsequently granted to key “allies”, including the European Union, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea and Australia, when Trump announced a further set of tariffs against China.

Davies said last month that the prospect of a quota had been canvassed with, and agreed to by, affected local companies and that government anticipated including the offer in a future, supplementary, submission to the US government.

The proposal of a quota had arisen during a recent teleconference with Deputy US trade representative Ambassador CJ Mahoney, who indicated that America would also expect assurances from South Africa that it would not be a conduit for cheap steel and aluminium products arising from other jurisdictions.

The US would also want countries applying for exclusion to present evidence of the actions they were taking to address the global steel glut.

Davies would not comment on how the South African government felt about the US action, saying only that government was doing what it could to ensure that South African jobs and productive capacity were not negatively affected by the increase in protection.

South Africa had raised the fact that a number of the aluminium articles listed for protection had previously been exempted from tariffs under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). However, it had received an indication that the proclamation applied even to those products covered by Agoa.

Davies said the US government had indicated that it would make a decision on South Africa’s request to be excluded from the tariffs before the end of this month.

On the prospect of Trump’s proclamation triggering a ‘trade war’, Davies expressed the concern that smaller countries, such as South Africa, could well be harmed.

“If there were to be a global trade war, I think the old African proverb, ‘When the elephants fight, the ants take a pounding’ . . . would apply and I don’t think we would welcome that.”