Cape Town – South Africa’s government is doing all it can to persuade the U.S. to reverse plans to suspend trade benefits on its agricultural goods following a dispute over restrictions on farm imports, Trade Minister Rob Davies said.
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“We have, however, seen a few important engagement by South Africa in recent days and remain hopeful that it will meet the mutually agreed benchmarks relating to eliminating barriers to USA poultry, pork and beef to avoid a suspension of AGOA benefits”, Froman said.
US chicken and cattle farmers want South Africa’s government to remove trade restrictions imposed in 2000 to protect South African farmers from cheaper imports, according to IndependentOnline. “I will continue to assess whether South Africa is making continual progress toward the elimination of barriers to United States trade and investment in accordance with AGOA eligibility requirements, as well as whether this suspension of benefits is effective in promoting compliance with those requirements”.
One critical deadline was missed on 15 October, when South Africa was supposed to finalise both a trade protocol for avian influenza and a health certificate for U.S. poultry, but those issues remain unresolved.
“We are disappointed that South Africa has yet to resolve these issues”, said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.
DA official, Geordin Hill-Lewis says it had been warning the DTI for more than a year on the AGOA “high stakes” issue.
Mike Brown, president of the US National Chicken Council, backed the move and said it made no sense for the United States to give special preferences to countries that treated it unfairly.
“The negotiations for the renewal of South Africa’s AGOA benefits have been completely mishandled by Minister Davies”.
South Africa has been able to export its meat to the US duty free.
The action follows a USA review of South Africa’s status as a full beneficiary of a preferential trade agreement under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, which eliminates import levies on more than 7,000 products ranging from textiles to manufactured items. “We are exhausted of watching South Africa accept pork from our key global competitors in Brazil, Canada and the European Union while rejecting USA pork”.
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U.S. Senators Chris Coons of Delaware and Johnny Isakson of Georgia – states with large poultry interests – said in a statement, “There is still time to address these issues, and we hope the president’s action today spurs South Africa to open their market to American poultry immediately”, BusinessDayLive reported.
