Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau has expressed cautious optimism over ongoing trade talks with the United States, more than a month after US President Donald Trump imposed 30 tariffs on South African exports.
Tau said South Africa's land redistribution and affirmative action policies, which Trump has criticised, are not the primary issues in the trade discussions, though they remain part of broader talks, Daily Maverick r eported.
In the nature of negotiations these are tough discussions, so it's very difficult to anticipate what the outcome would be. But I am optimistic because there's a sense that we'd want to reach an agreement - that we'd want to find each other - and that, I think, is a very good starting point, the report quoted Tau as saying in New York on Sunday.