RAMAPHOSA URGES U.S. TO CUT TRUMP TARIFFS

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that his country is in talks with a U.S. trade representative to reduce tariffs levied by U.S. President Donald Trump after warning world leaders that "trade is now being used as a weapon."
The U.S. is South Africa's partner. Trump in August imposed a on imports from South Africa after Ramaphosa's administration's multiple attempts at a deal on trade.

"We would like tariffs which President Trump is intending to levy on us and has already done, to be reduced," Ramaphosa said during a visit to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Ramaphosa had made an analogy between trade and a weapon earlier in the day, in remarks at the U.N. General Assembly

"Geopolitical shocks and unprecedented trade policy uncertainty are spooking the world economy and jeopardizing a critical source of finance for development," he said. "Trade is being used as a weapon against many nations across the globe."
Ramaphosa added the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) treaty must be extended, a trade preference agreement, granting duty-free quota-free access for thousands of products for 32 sub-Saharan countries. AGOA didn't come up for a vote in Congress last year.

Trump's return to the White House in January has only contributed to uncertainty around an extension, a consequence of his tariff-supported trade policy.
The most industrialized economy in South Africa received the lion's share of the benefit.