South Africa, US AGOA partnership under threat due to meat, poultry dispute

South Africa and the United States have failed to agree on key parts of a trade agreement on the importation of poultry and pork, with the Americans threatening to suspend the country from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) unless the South Africans act fast to rescue the deal.

While the December 31 deadline has passed to reach an agreement, both sides said they are committed to continuing the negotiations.

At a hastily arranged media briefing in Pretoria, South African government said officials have been engaging with their US counterparts over the festive season to finalize all outstanding “technical issues” to allow for safe imports of poultry, pork and beef products from the United States, as a requirement for South Africa’s continued participation in AGOA trade benefits.

South Africa believes that with some flexibility from both sides, the final touches to the agreement on which 95 percent of the work has been done can be completed.

South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies said since the negotiations began, the country has made significant progress on opening its markets for the US meat imports.

This includes an agreement on a quota for bone-in-chicken pieces and poultry trade protocol on avian flu.

Davis said, during the past few weeks, pork health certificates have been negotiated and only require signatures from both sides. He said when South Africa imports U.S. poultry “we have to ensure it doesn’t cause sickness to our poultry”.

The dispute centres on the African nation’s restrictions on farm imports that have sparked a “poultry war” between local farmers and their US counterparts.

South Africa’s Health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi said “no government in the world can wilfully” expose any of its citizens to any type of diseases.

In November, U.S. President Barack Obama informed Congress of his intention to suspend South Africa’s AGOA benefits for all agricultural products and this would affect R2.4 billion (US$160 million) of annual agricultural exports, covering products such as wine, fruit juice, citrus fruit and pulp among others.

The preferential trade agreement has helped South Africa more than double its exports to the United States since 2000.

Meanwhile, Democratic Alliance official, Geordin Hill-Lewis told The Africa Report that “it’s amazing that DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) has neglected to prioritize the AGOA deal. The economy is already in a dire state and the country cannot afford to be excluded from the Act”.

Source: The Africa Report