TLDR: South Africa is courting Chinese automakers with assembly deals, offering East London or Port Elizabeth sites to whoever moves first. The pitch: raised import duties to protect local jobs, then assembly incentives to bring Chinese tech inside the border. One brand already showed interest while BYD faces guidance cuts at home. Translation: Africa’s only real auto manufacturing economy is about to become China’s continental beachhead.
The Deal Nobody’s Discussing While Europe Panics About Tariffs
Pretoria just laid out the playbook every emerging market will copy: jack up import duties to the WTO ceiling, then offer Chinese brands assembly deals that bypass those same duties. It’s protectionism that invites the enemy inside the gates. And the enemy is bringing jobs.
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