The United States (US) and South Africa are “tantalisingly close” to resolving their agricultural exports disputes, confirmed a US government official, echoing the South African government’s recent reassurances that the country would not lose its duty-free market access to the US.
Daily online news site, BDLive, cited Laird Treiber, economic counsellor at the US embassy in Pretoria, as denying that the Obama administration was "bullying" SA by threatening to suspend duty-free treatment of its farm products unless a 15-year-old dispute over chicken wings and legs was resolved by January 4.
Treiber was reportedly confident that the dispute over access to the South African market for US poultry, beef and pork would be resolved ahead of the deadline and that the first shipment of US chicken parts would arrive in SA by the end of the year.
Last week US president Barack Obama issued a letter of ultimatum to president Jacob Zuma warning that South Africa had 60 days (until January 4, 2016) to show that it was meeting Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) requirements before the US imposed tariffs on South African agricultural products.
South African business people also expressed concern this week that millions of rands of agricultural exports and over 100 000 jobs could potentially be lost, should South Africa’s inclusion in Agoa fall through.
