South Africa still wants a trade deal with the US days before the tariff deadline

South Africa’s trade ministry said on Tuesday that the country still wanted to talk about a trade deal with the US before Friday, when a 30% tax on its exports to the US is set to go into effect.

Before the August 1 deadline, Pretoria has been quiet about its talks with the government of U.S. President Donald Trump. This is because the relationship between the two countries has been getting worse because of South Africa’s race policy and its genocide case against Israel, which Israel denies.

The trade minister said in a statement that it was still waiting for “further information from our U.S. counterparts on the final status of our framework deal.”