Meatier obstacles to SA's Agoa inclusion

South Africa faces another major hurdle to its unrestricted inclusion in the United States African Growth and Opportunity Act – the finalisation of health certificates for beef and pork imports to resume from the US. Dave Wolpert, CEO of the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE), told FTW that the “Paris negotiations” – during which the infamous chicken imports war was settled – between the minister of trade and industry Dr Rob Davies and the US trade representative Michael Froman, - included an agreement that the beef and pork import market would be opened to the US again and that the process would be fasttracked. “However, this may take a bit of time as the veterinary clearance certificates still need to be obtained,” said Wolpert The Mail & Guardian (M&G) newspaper cited chief director of inspection services for the department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries (Daff), Mooketsa Ramasodi, as saying that the diseases presented in the US beef and pork products had not been “inactivated”. Of particular concern to Daff is the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) which Ramasodi reportedly said had not been satisfactorily addressed by the US. According to him, most countries had made an effort to comply with SA’s PRRS regulation but the US had simply sent a list of products they wanted SA to consider. “Only a handful of those were considered safe by our standards,” he told M&G Information found on the South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (Sapo) website notes that South Africa is one of the few global producers that has not been touched by the virus. According to Sapo, an outbreak would mean a loss of around R750 to R1 000 per breeding female a year. Obtaining a health certificate for beef exports could be easier as the US received a ‘negligible risk’ of spongiform encephalopathy (commonly referred to as ‘mad cow’ disease) in May 2013. According to Ramasodi, SA already imports beef from other negligible risk countries. Addressing parliament in Cape Town last week, Davies noted that South Africa and the US were working on the outstanding import issues around plant and animal health and that stakeholders would meet in the US by the end of this month to find some common ground. US ambassador, Patrick Gaspard, recently issued a statement to refute allegations that the US was holding SA hostage on its inclusion in the Agoa renewal, commenting: “The US has made clear our consistent position that we want Agoa seamlessly renewed, and that we want South Africa included. Both the administration and Congress, however, have also made it clear that we want to resolve outstanding issues blocking US trade, most notably on several agricultural products.” INSERT & CAPTION The US has made it clear that we want to resolve outstanding issues blocking US trade. – Patrick Gaspard