The South African government will meet with United States (US) authorities this week to deal with the outstanding issues around the continued access of SA’s agricultural products to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).
This follows Friday’s signing of a health protocol agreement between South African and US veterinary authorities allowing for the import of US bone-in-chicken portions. The signing of the protocol agreement effectively removes one of the biggest obstacles to SA’s inclusion in the Agoa programme.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, said in a statement on Monday that the outstanding issues were a letter dealing with salmonella in poultry and finalisation of an agreement on the sanitary and phytosanitary issues related to US beef and pork imports.
He was cited by daily online news site, BDLive, as saying: "These issues are not big. We are close to concluding the outstanding matters and there is progress. We think we are well on track to conclude all the regulatory matters well within the deadline (January 4) set in the notice sent by US president, Barack Obama."
