US still sceptical about SA commitment to meat imports

United States (US) government officials are pushing for more concrete proof that Pretoria is ready to lift its bans on US poultry, beef and pork – before a decision is made on South Africa’s inclusion in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

According to news reports, this was raised at a public hearing held in the US over the weekend on whether SA should continue to receive trade privileges.

Assistant US trade representative, Florie Liser, was cited by the Business Day as telling SA ambassador to the US, Mninwa Mahlangu, that “significant and continual progress has to be made on the elimination of barriers to US trade and investment”.

She reportedly pressed the ambassador to go beyond his text and provide "concrete" examples, noting that the US was demanding that the ban be "regionalised" — limited to products from areas in which disease outbreaks, including avian flu, have occurred.

Daily online site, Voice of America (VoA), cited US assistant trade representative for agriculture, Sharon Lauritsen, as pointing out a  "discrepancy" between the ambassador’s brief and what SA veterinary officials had told US officials at their last formal meeting on July 27.

According to the business daily, Mahlangu suggested that SA would be willing to consider regionalisation if there were no further cases of avian flu – which broke out in the US again in June – over the next six weeks.

But by the veterinary officials, Lauritsen said, "we were told that SA was not really willing to regionalise … and that we should expect a disease-free approach", meaning that a disease outbreak anywhere in the US would continue to result in a blanket SA ban.