Senators press South Africa to get US chicken back on the market

A bipartisan pair of senators is calling on South Africa to move quickly so the U.S. can resume exports of poultry after a 15-year trade dispute.

Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are urging South African President Jacob Zuma to fulfill their commitment made in an agreement reached this summer in Paris that will restart the chicken trade.

In a letter to Zuma on Friday, Isakson and Coons point to a number of unresolved issues that are hindering the successful implementation of the Paris deal.
 
{mosads}“Our understanding is that there are two processes that need to be completed in South Africa to implement the Paris agreement,” the senators wrote.
 
They said that a rebate system must be created to legally exempt the annual quota amount from antidumping duties and there must be a transparent process for making the rules for determining the quota.

“Without these issues being addressed and in place, U.S. companies cannot ship product, regardless of the other terms of the Paris agreement being reached,” the senators wrote.

The agreement ends a 100 percent tariff on U.S. chicken that South Africa implemented in 2000, which essentially shut the U.S. poultry industry out of that market.

Isakson and Coons, who are the co-chairmen of the Senate Chicken Caucus and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have pressured the South African government for more than a year to end the antidumping duties.

Most recently, the senators secured language in the reauthorization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) — which President Obama signed in June — requiring the USTR to conduct a review of South Africa’s trade practices, specifically antidumping duties on U.S. poultry.

The review is underway, they said.

“You also know that it is crucially important to both of us that there be a successful and expeditious resolution of this issue so that the U.S. poultry industry can begin again to participate in the South African market,” they wrote.
 
Under the current agreement, if not further delayed, U.S. poultry products are expected to enter the South African market before the end of this year.