Progress in talks on US-SA stalemate
Talks between US and SA veterinary officials in Pretoria over the removal of SA’s health-related import bans on US chicken, beef and pork made "some progress", the office of the US trade representative said in a terse statement on Tuesday.
The dispute, which is threatening SA’s duty-free access to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), is also being discussed in Washington this week in the context of the US-SA strategic dialogue, a structured round of bilateral meetings.
The SA delegation is led by International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who will likely be asked to explain the mounting hostility to the US evinced in the African National Congress’s national general council discussion documents.
The US was represented in Monday’s talks by Eric Coleman and Mark Davidson from the US agriculture department’s animal and plant health inspection services veterinary office.
Trade officials teleconferenced in to the discussion to emphasise the political importance of resolving the differences.
"While some progress was made on poultry and beef, the US and South African officials will continue to address the outstanding issues," the statement said. "The US expects SA to follow international standards and base their import decisions on sound science."
SA agreed in June to lift prohibitive antidumping duties on a 65,000-tonne quota of US bone-in chicken portions, but has yet to implement the agreement.
In the meantime, SA is banning all imports of US poultry, citing fears of avian influenza contagion.
US beef remains excluded even though the Cabinet has reportedly deemed it safe, as do the cuts of pork US producers are most interested in exporting to SA.
Before this week’s meetings, US officials stepped up public warnings that unless the meat bans were lifted, key SA exports including cars, ferromanganese, citrus and wine could be denied duty-free access under Agoa to the US market.
The US poultry industry’s champions, senators Chris Coons and Johnny Isakson, wrote to President Jacob Zuma to remind him that "a review of SA’s eligibility under Agoa is presently under way".
- [Related: media release by South Africa - 15 September 2015]
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