South Africa, U.S. chicken producers to meet over trade dispute

08/04/2015 12:00 - 501 Views

The countries have been at loggerheads on whether South Africa should lift the 2000 anti-dumping duties imposed on the U.S. It may lose out on preferential access to the U.S. for poultry through the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, if an agreement isn’t reached.

“What we are in the process of offering is a reasonable offer,” Kevin Lovell, the chief executive officer of the South African Poultry Association, said by phone on Tuesday from the U.K. Concessions “will need to be based on an understanding of what the Americans used to export to us.”

In 2000, the International Trade Administration Commission requested imposing provisional duties on U.S. frozen whole chickens, frozen bone-in chicken cuts such as drumsticks, leg quarters, breasts and thighs going to South Africa. Taxes were at 27 percent and 2.20 rand (19 U.S. cents) a kilogram then.

South Africa offered to raise the annual tonnage allowed free of anti-dumping duties by 50 percent for the U.S., Johannesburg-based Business Day newspaper reported March 11. It was rejected by American producers at a meeting in Washington.

Source: Bloomberg