Alan peat
EXTREME DISAPPOINTMENT has been expressed by the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) at the decision by the SA Board of Tariffs and Trade (BoT&T) to make the anti-dumping import duties - temporarily imposed last July - permanent.
The board's decision - according to information released to FTW by the Deloitte & Touche international trade division - was: Anti-dumping duties are imposed - with retrospective effect to July 5, 2000 - on frozen, prepared or preserved meat of fowls of the species Gallus domesticus, cut in pieces with bone-in, imported from or originating in the USA, under rebate items 207.14.01.06 to 224c/kg; 207.14.02.06 to 245c/kg; 207.14.03.06 to 696c/kg; 1602.32.01.06 to 224c/kg; 1602.32.02.06 to 245c/kg; and 1602.32.03.06 to 696c/kg.
USAPEEC describes these duties as punitive and exorbitant - and states that the decision will make it cost-prohibitive for US chicken to reach SA consumers.
It adds that the real losers in this decision are SA's lower income consumers who make up the majority of the market of US poultry producers.
After a careful review of the board's finding, it said, USAPEEC will present the facts to our government, and encourage it to take all appropriate action to appeal this decision to the WTO.
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