US and South Africa in AGOA chicken trade row
For years now, South Africa has had tariffs in place that effectively force imported chickens out of the market but this exclusion could soon be brought to an end under increasing international pressure, with America recently joining the fray. South Africa’s status within an important trade deal with the US is coming up for review this year and this issue is certain to be a source of dispute.
Since 2000, countries in Sub Saharan Africa have been signed up to AGOA – the African Growth and Opportunity Act – a trade deal aimed at bringing Africa into the international market by opening up trade with the US. The deal has had small successes but has been criticised for the amount of African oil exported.
Johnny Isakson, Republican Senator for Georgia, presides over a state where poultry accounts for over half of agricultural commodities, and contributes $18 billion annually to the state’s economy. The senator is now using his political muscle in an attempt to open up the South African market and expand the reach of one of his state’s most valuable industries.
In January, the Senator wrote a letter that clearly set out his position, he said: “There is now precedent within the WTO that South Africa’s duties do not conform with international regulations.”
He went on to imply that non-compliance would have dire consequences, he said: “If this is not resolved before we conclude the legislative process […] we will need to consider strengthening AGOA to prevent South Africa from benefitting from duty preferences while continuing to discriminate against US goods.”
This build-up in assertive rhetoric from Isakson, along with other Senators and businessmen, is certainly not to be taken lightly – it is part of a wider campaign by several countries who are pressuring South Africa to lift its poultry tariffs. Brazil, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands are all involved in similar rows over these import duties.
Over the past decade, Senegal has lost roughly 70 percent of its poultry trade to the cheaper birds supplied by the EU – this factor must surely be on the mind of business leaders like Sidwell Medupe, a spokesman for South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry, who decried the increasing demands as “onerous.”
Whilst AGOA has certainly increased employment across Africa and brought the continent closer to international trade, there have been criticisms in recent years that it has disproportionately favoured the US and its hunger for raw materials. At a meeting of AGOA parties in 2013, Fatima Haram Acyl, the African Union's Trade Commissioner said: “If we continue to export only raw materials, we will not achieve one of its objectives which is export diversification.”
Ultimately, it would seem that if the African continent wants its trade to be truly global in scale, then it must be prepared to score off against the big players. It is very well to have free trade between nations, but if one of the parties still struggles with providing the basic elements of a modern society then disparity is inevitable and a real danger of exploitation.