South African government officials have pulled out all the stops in the past few days to ensure the country remains part of the United States African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) programme.
This comes after South Africa missed a deadline set by American President Barack Obama to conclude negotiations around the phyto sanitary concerns over poultry and meat imports.
Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies confirmed that negotiations had been concluded and that a quota of 65 000 tonnes of US poultry imports was now in place.
“We have signed all of the documents as all of the outstanding phyto sanitary matters that were raised as part of the out of cycle review process have been completed,” he said. “Negotiations have been concluded and actual arrival of poultry products into the market has been open since 11h00 this morning.”
Davies said all outstanding concerns around two issues regarding poultry, namely highly pathogenic avian influenza and salmonella, had been addressed.
“We are now awaiting a response from the US. There is a significant time difference and so have not had formal word from them about the signed documents in question.”
He said a formal recognition from the US on the agreements, the conclusion of the negotiations and the signing of all the documents was expected over the next few days.
While Davies could not confirm that South Africa had not been suspended from its inclusion in the Agoa programme, he said he expected that South Africa would not be suspended.
“We expect that South Africa will be able to participate in Agoa with no interruption to the trade flows. We could have been suspended on January 4, but it is now already January 7 and we have not yet been suspended. We are calling on the US to do the right thing and maintain our continued involvement in Agoa.”
In terms of the agreement reached, South Africa will test samples from all US poultry imports for the next three months after which random testing will be conducted on a statistical basis. South Africa also agreed to waive import duties on the 65 000 tonnes of poultry imported annually.
Davies said South Africa had also reached agreement with the US regarding pork imports and that the countryhad agreed to allow the unrestricted importation of the shoulder cuts after the US agreed to apply mitigation measures. South Africa has also committed to import beef from the US.
Speaking at a press briefing today (Thursday) Davies said South Africa had met all requirements as set out in the out of cycle review.
At least 38% of the country’s total exports to the US are part of the Agoa programme, which eliminates import duties on 7 000 products ranging from textiles to manufactured items.
Davies said South African exporters were exempt from paying tariffs to the tune of about US$47 billion alone through Agoa, which emphasises the importance of South Africa’s inclusion in the programme.
