SFC Markets and Finance | Lester Bouah: South Africa Seeks Growth Through Stronger Bilateral Ties
️南方财经全媒体记者 李依农、郑青亭 上海、北京报道
As global trade tensions rise, particularly in the wake of the Trump administration's 30% tariff on South African imports, South Africa sees China as a key partner in navigating global trade challenges. In an exclusive interview with SFC, Lester Bouah, Chief Director of Investment Mobilisation, Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, Republic of South Africa, emphasized the urgency of diversifying markets and deepening cooperation with China — from green energy and electric vehicles to pharmaceuticals and agriculture.
Bouah called for greater market access for South African products in China and underscored the strategic importance of BRICS collaboration in helping developing economies navigate unilateral trade shocks.
️SFC Markets and Finance: South Africa’s automotive and agricultural sectors face significant challenges due to the Trump administration’s imposition of a 30% tariff on imports. What economic impacts are anticipated for these key industries, and how might they ripple through South Africa’s broader economy?
️Lester Bouah: It will have a significant impact because our automotive, agriculture, and mining industries employ a lot of people, and they are some of our key exports to the U.S. market. The U.S. market is not our only market, but it is a large market for us. And this barrier or this tariff is having a significant impact and it is creating a lot of uncertainty for our industries.
At this point in time there is a 90-day reprieve on that, but we are hoping that the Americans will open the door for discussion. We have asked, we have reached out, we have not had the door opened for us.
At least China is going now shortly to talk to the Americans around it and hopefully sense will prevail. But it is a lot of uncertainty, not only South Africa, not only China, but the entire world, and mostly developing countries will suffer the brunt of it. So it will have a significant impact.
️SFC Markets and Finance: So negotiations between South Africa and the USA have not started yet？
️Lester Bouah: We have not (begun negotiations). They (the U.S.) have not reached out to us as yet to say how do we go forward and take it. We have reached out just like China, we are always open to dialogue, open to discussion, because the world is a global environment. We need one another, and we have to discuss it on this end.
Trade wars do not benefit anybody. We went many years to develop the WTO, a rules based system, and a rules based system is good for everybody. So we know what the certainty is, we know what you are going to sell at what rate, and I know what I can sell to you, and that’s important for us. So any unilateral trade challenges like this affects everybody, particularly developing countries.
️SFC Markets and Finance: And based on your knowledge, how is South African private sector responding to the trade tariffs?
️Lester Bouah: They are very uneasy. They are asking the South African government to really reach out and make efforts to talk to the Americans. And we have done that. But they're also just like the South African government looking for other avenues and other opportunities, to reach out to other markets where we can expand our footprint.
The private sector is clearly aware of what is happening, and they're also very supportive of how do we then look at other markets, to mitigate this particular potential threat to economic growth and development in South Africa.
️SFC Markets and Finance: What do you anticipate will occur 90 days from now? Will the negotiations lead to a solution to reduce rates? Or is South Africa more likely to implement a retaliatory trade measures?
️Lester Bouah: We hope that sense will prevail. But we don't know about the uncertainty and we don't know, unfortunately, President Trump is very unpredictable. So we don't know what he will do from time to time. And we don't have the muscle like China to go into a retaliatory measures, as it were a small market, 60 million people.
We don't have the luxury of doing that. So what we'd rather do is look at alternative partners. So for us, the question is how we grow that partnership. How do we grow our partnerships into Europe? Because Europeans are also under threat like us. How do we advance those? How do we then advance our partnership with the BRICS countries? Retaliatory action is not going to help, it just feeds into the American narrative of them being the leading country in the world, and therefore they will dictate to how we must (do). No, we will open up, we will continue the dialogue, we need to get our products in there.
️SFC Markets and Finance: Meanwhile, will South Africa seek alternative markets and partnership in order to mitigate this negative impact of recent US tariffs?
️Lester Bouah: We have already started that. We are enhancing our partnership with China. As you've seen, even before Mr Trump came with these tariffs, we already are the only African country that has enhanced our relationship with China, to the various highest level of interaction. So you can see we've started this before because we see China as an strategic market. We have preferential agreements with the EU through our EPA. We have the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which we are working towards so that we can keep access of products into Africa. We have good partnerships in BRICS. So we are looking at those avenues and enhancing those elements. America is important, but it's not the only market.
️SFC Markets and Finance: And what specific sectors offer the greatest potential for expanding bilateral trade between South Africa and China?
️Lester Bouah: Definitely the green economy. Energy space is a significant area for us. And there are opportunities for China because over the last 20 years, we have not had enough investment in the infrastructure of our power in the country. So in the power generation space, in the power transmission space, substations, new power plants, transmission lines, those are areas where there are significant opportunities for Chinese investors to look at. Solar, wind and other technologies also. So that are some areas that we think we should look at.
In the space of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, in the agricultural space, agricultural equipment. In the EV space, there are opportunities there. So that we could become a manufacturer of components for the growing EV market. I mean China is the largest commercial EV manufacturer in the world. I mean, BYD has just overtaken Tesla, is the largest manufacturing entity in the world. So that for us is significant because of the critical minerals that we have in South Africa, and that we could look at battery manufacturing around that, together with our African partners.
️SFC Markets and Finance: Let's talk about the BRICS cooperation. Do you think this platform or mechanism offers more opportunities for South Africa to expand business cooperation with other countries?
️Lester Bouah: Of course. Remember within BRICS, we are a small player, but we are a significant player on the African continent. Remember, if you just look at population size and even economic size against Brazil, against Russia, against India, against China, South Africa is, from a population size, very small in comparison to those, but significant within the African continent. And that's why South Africa has also agreed to bring on other countries like Saudi Arabia and all these others have now recently joined.
And there is a big expansion around BRICS, and a lot of countries have also put applications in, saying we want to be part of it, particularly in the Global South, particularly developing countries, are saying, well, we have to work together as developing countries, to advance our economies, because many of the Western powers are not looking at that. They're just coming, they have an extractive approach, they want to extract. We need to change that around here.
️SFC Markets and Finance: Are there opportunities to deepen cooperation in infrastructure development, digital innovation, or agriculture?
️Lester Bouah: Absolutely, those are the areas that we mentioned today. There is really a great need for us. One of the areas I was telling is probably untapped in the agricultural space as a mix among agriculture, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, which is natural methods. China is really good at natural methods and Africa has a lot of resources within the natural environment. How do we then collaborate to enhance products in that particular space, but also other areas like pharmaceuticals? The cost of pharmaceuticals in Africa is very high, because the major players out there in the world control these kind of things. How can we work together with China to look at the manufacturing of some of these products in our country itself and lower than the cost of these pharmaceuticals for people in the country?
️SFC Markets and Finance: What challenges need to be addressed to ensure mutual benefits between the two sides?
️Lester Bouah: China needs to open up its market a bit more for us, because our market is open. As you saw, 93% of manufactured products are imported into South Africa from China, 93% of commodities, raw materials go from Africa to China. So we need China to open up the market more for manufactured goods, not only raw materials, but to partner with us on improving the manufacturing of those capacities in that particular market.
China has invited us to all these trade shows. Every year in December, there's a trade show, big international trade show, they invited we to go there. So we went to all the trade shows in China. What we said to the President is that we will invite more inward buying merchants from China, people who want to buy from South Africa to come there. We can show them what products, we can share the products, we can open up our production facilities, so they can see, and then we can get those products. So for us, that is what is important for us to enhance our relationship.
️SFC Markets and Finance: China will vigorously expand domestic demand on all fronts, ️what does it mean for South Africa's products?
️Lester Bouah: It means a significant number. And I'm talking about the middle class that are more than 100 million, compared to South Africa. So if we can just get 10% of that market for our products, it makes a significant contribution for us, on agricultural products, but other manufactured products. Let me give an example, I don't know if you heard about it, you probably know about rooibos tea.
Chinese like rooibos tea, but sometimes Chinese make it very difficult to get our tea into China. South African wines are good, but also difficult to get (into China). I know Chinese like Maotai, but we have good wines. A lot of your wines are imported from Australia, why not South Africa as a partnership country? There is part of BRICS, so that's one thing they must look for opening up.
I don't know if you heard a product called aloe creams, good natural products. Open up our markets for those things. So open up markets for the cosmetics industry. And you can bring your experts to come, look at and test. And as I said, just 10% of the Chinese market, that's about 140 million people to have access to some of our products which would make a significant difference for South Africa as a trade market for us.
We have got very much benefits from the partnership with China, especially our manufacturers and those good quality products to export. So we're looking forward to enhancing the relationship with China significantly.
️SFC Markets and Finance: Are there any Chinese investments in rooibos tea or the cosmetics industry?
️Lester Bouah: We have a lot of people, who are not invested in there because there are some Africans who have IP on those things, but are exporting it.
I'm going from Beijing to Dongguan, and in Dongguan we have a province-to-province relationship there and we have a commodity center, where we are displaying South African products and they also buy rooibos tea. And the other thing they buy is abalone. You know, abalone is fish product, and abalone, crawfish, lobsters from South Africa. So we want to enhance those markets for South African and Chinese are very keen on that particular area.
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