South Africa: chicken imports end AGOA impasse
With the arrival of US frozen chicken portions in South African stores at the weekend, Pretoria satisfied conditions for retaining US trade privileges under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), US Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Wednesday.
The announcement puts an end to a long-running dispute that came to a head in November when US President Barack Obama gave SA 90 days to open its market to US chicken, beef and pork or lose duty-free access to the US market for its own agricultural products.
The poultry dispute dates back to 2000 when SA imposed prohibitive antidumping duties on US chicken parts.
That was partially resolved last June when SA agreed to give US exporters an annual 65,000 tonne quota at normal duty rates. The two sides then deadlocked over health-related barriers, not only to US poultry, but also beef and pork.
The resolution could be worth $160m annually to US exporters, Mr Froman said.
After missing Mr Obama’s deadline, SA reached final agreement with the US in early January.
Mr Obama then gave SA until March 15 to meet one last benchmark: the physical availability of US chicken for sale to SA consumers.
On Tuesday, senator Chris Coons, the Delaware Democrat who, with Georgia Republican senator Johnny Isakson championed the US poultry industry in the dispute, distributed photographs showing bags of US chicken parts for sale in a South African market.
Before Mr Froman could make his announcement, last-minute uncertainties had to be resolved over the treatment of US pork shipments once they landed in SA. These had been worked out "within the past 24 hours", the trade representative said.
Mr Obama has still to issue a formal proclamation announcing that SA has satisfied Agoa conditions, but Mr Froman indicated that was now a formality. His office would, however, continue to monitor SA’s compliance with the requirements of the act, which is not a trade agreement but a unilateral grant of US market access to qualifying countries.
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