South African farmers urge tariff talks with US as citrus industry faces massive job losses

Tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump will hurt South African citrus farms and could potentially affect 35,000 jobs, a farmers’ association said on Tuesday.

Trump imposed a 31% tariff on U.S. imports from South Africa on April 2, when he announced a 10% baseline tariff on all imports and higher targeted duties on dozens of countries.

South Africa, the world’s second largest citrus exporter after Spain, ships between 5%-6% of its produce to the U.S., earning more than $100 million annually.

The new tariff would place an additional $4.50 cost on each carton, making South Africa’s fruit less competitive in the U.S. market, the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa (CGA) said in a statement.

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Towns such as Citrusdal in the Western Cape, which are heavily dependent on citrus exports to the U.S., could be hit especially hard, CGA chairperson Gerrit van der Merwe said.

“The severity and immediate nature of the impending tariffs could mean that towns like it now face either increased unemployment or maybe even total economic collapse,” van der Merwe said. “There is immense anxiety in our communities.”

A total of 35,000 jobs are directly connected to South Africa’s citrus exports, he added.

With South African farmers starting to pack citrus destined for the U.S. market this week, growers have called on the government “to prioritise immediate negotiations with the U.S on tariff reductions or exemptions on citrus”.

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Africa’s most advanced economy has said it will not retaliate against the U.S., its second largest bilateral trading partner after China. Instead, South Africa says it will seek to negotiate exemptions and quota agreements.

South Africa has also said Trump’s tariffs effectively nullified the benefits African countries have enjoyed under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which grants qualifying states duty-free access to the U.S. market. The 25-year-old trade initiative is set to expire in September.