The president of South Africa claims that commerce is being exploited as a “weapon”

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa told international leaders that “trade is now being used as a weapon” and announced on Tuesday that his nation is in negotiations with a U.S. trade envoy to lower tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

South Africa’s partner is the U.S. In August, following multiple failed attempts by Ramaphosa’s government to negotiate a trade deal, Trump placed restrictions on South African imports.

At the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Ramaphosa stated, “We want tariffs that President Trump is trying to levy on us and has already started to be eliminated.”

At the U.N. General Assembly earlier in the day, Ramaphosa compared trade to a weapon.

“Geopolitical shocks and unprecedented trade policy volatility are destabilizing the global economy and jeopardizing a critical source of development finance,” he said. “In fact, trade is now being used as a weapon against a number of countries in the world.”

Additionally, Ramaphosa stated that the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), a preferential trade agreement that grants 32 African countries duty-free, quota-free access to thousands of items, should be maintained. AGOA was not put to a vote in Congress last year.

Given his trade-oriented policies and tariffs, Trump’s January return to the White House has further raised concerns about an extension.

The largest beneficiary was South Africa, whose economy was the most developed on the continent.