Sopuruchi Onwuka

The sweeping trade tariffs with which President Donald Trump of the United States tends to have upset global trade asserts, once again, the overwhelming influence of the country as the world’s most powerful economy.

President Trump imposed only half of the duties trade partners charge on US exports. Trump stated that the U.S. would implement “reciprocal tariffs” on goods imported from all countries at approximately half the rate they charge on goods arriving from the United States.

The announcement clearly means that countries in the new tariff list charge double what Trump intends to charge on goods they export to the US. Yet the mark up is globally hyped as slaughter, even by supposedly rich and industrialized nations in Europe and Asia.

In Africa, relatively small nations like Lesotho and Saint Pierre Miquelon earned themselves the highest tariff rate of 50 percent on exports to the US. And Nigeria which imposes a 27 percent tariff on U.S. imports attracts a 14 percent tariff in return.

In addition to recovering from countries that take so much from American exporters, the Trump tariffs also amplifies the new trend of non-combatant warfare that targets economies whose governments are in the bandwagon of global pariahs insufferable by the Trump administration.

The Trump tariffs come at a momentous period of widespread conflicts and military campaigns. They represent a trade war that mirrors the global alliances that are currently at conflict over economic, diplomatic and military influences. These influences manifest in the Ukrainian war, the Israeli-Iranian feud in the Middle East, and the US-China spar over Taiwan.

The tariff crisis also spreads to the emerging conflict over European overseas territories in North American mainland which the Trump administration has brazenly expressed ambitions to acquire in a surprising expansion plan. And the Trump ambition to grab control of both Canada and Greenland to possibly severe European influence in the American continent has sparked indignation in Europe.

In Africa, South Africa carries the transferred anger of the United States over its thoughtless and needless intrusion in the proxy war between the United States and Iran in the Middle East: a war that sparked by a brazen invasion of Israel by Iran sponsored HAMAS terrorist group which mercilessly massacred over 2000 civilians including babies and the elderly  in their homes before carrying bargain chips of over 250 hostages into a catacomb of Gazan underground tunnels.

The Gazan war and its destabilizing regional fallouts resulting in the collapse of Syrian government is a story of atrocious rampage which Israel has fronted unassailably in driving cross border manhunt of its common enemies with the United States. While the world watched with glee and glare, South African government heedlessly launched inexcusable diplomatic offensive that pitched it against the United States.

The Oracle Today which has followed the trends of events across the world reports that resurgence of imperial tendencies among global military and economic superpowers is also on the rise, pitching military and economic blocs against one another. And the crossfire of aggression and reprisal finds expression in the trade wars and santions, a dragnet with which the Trump administration tends to pull adversaries into deference.

Whereas China and European nations separately respond to the United States’ tariffs with countermeasures, Africa is in total despondence, with little or no capacity for either reprisal or negotiation. The black continent has hitherto been on a free ride, relying on the traditional goodwill of advanced economies for aids and assistance.

In the case of the trade relations with the United States, African nations are mere beneficiaries of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) with which the American government have since 2000 tried to encourage the beggarly continent with free exports to access its highly empowered market sans tariff.

The AGOA programme, The Oracle Today reports, was perceived to encourage local producers find a strong duty free export market as incentive for domestic industrial development and diversification of earnings from resource exports.

Thus, the end of the current tenure of the AGOA trade program which comes in September will present President Trump the opportunity to modify the US terms of trade with African countries, and possibly find room to end the free tickets for countries that work against the interest of the US and its allies across the world.

If President Trump and his government choose to end AGOA as in the case of wider USAID, sub-Saharan African countries will woefully lose free access to the world’s biggest market. This will entail loss of annual $40 billion trade value for African countries Like Nigeria which export mainly semi-finished goods and raw materials to the United States.

Whereas most African countries fall into the list of new tariffs on imports unleashed by the Trump administration, South Africa stands out as a major loser. The Cyril Ramaphosa government attracts 30 percent tariffs on exports to the United States. And given that the US automobile imports already carry a 25 percent duty, the South African major export to the US stands jeopardized under the current tariff programme.

The economic impact of the new US tariffs on Pretoria’s exports amounts to annual $2.0 billion or significant 64 percent of the African country’s total AGOA privileges. And it would be noted that AGOA had groomed the US as the second largest market for South Africa’s auto exports.

Thus, if the new tariffs come into effect and AGOA comes to an end, South Africa’s hitherto duty free automobile exports to the US would now attract whopping 30 percent tariffs. And if additional 25 percent general automobile tariff is added, Pretoria would likely pay some 55 percent tariff on its major export to the US. And analysts fear that the cumulative duty on automobile exports from South Africa might burst the boom in the industry.

Whereas arguments rent the air about the low impact of AGOA on the development of the Africa’s overall balance of payments, countries like South Africa quickly come to mind as a good scorecard for AGOA. And this is where the South African government has drawn a huge vicarious liability on the continent by overreaching itself on the Gazan war.