By Reuters
JOHANNESBURG: The South African rand edged up in early trade on Tuesday, buoyed by hopes the country could still salvage a less damaging trade deal with the United States after President Donald Trump extended a tariff deadline to August 1.
Trump informed Pretoria and more than a dozen other trading partners of sharply higher trade levies in a wave of letters sent out on Monday.
South African is facing a 30% trade tariff on its exports to the US, but the extended deadline has opened a window for further negotiations.
At 0656 GMT the rand traded at 17.76 against the dollar, roughly up 0.6% on Monday鈥檚 close, seemingly clawing back some of its losses after falling well over 1% on the day.
The risk sensitive currency was already reeling after Trump threatened an additional 10% tariff on any country aligning with what he called 鈥淎nti-American policies鈥 of the BRICS group.
The US is South Africa鈥檚 second-largest bilateral trading partner after China.
In addition to minerals, car parts and other manufact