SA most ‘protectionist’ country when it comes to poultry

SÃO PAULO – South Africa is one of the most protectionist countries in the world when it comes to poultry and has become “masters” in using anti-dumping as a method of keeping out foreign products from its market, the head of the world’s poultry organisation said on Wednesday.

The attack by International Poultry Council president James Sumner was made during a presentation at the bi-annual congress of the Brazilian Association for Animal Protein, which gathers representatives from the poultry and pork industry, government and other industry associations.

Sumner is also head of the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, which was instrumental in forcing SA to accept a 65,000 tonne quota of bone-in chicken imports from the US, free of onerous tariffs, as a condition of SA’s continued participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

Brazil successfully applied to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2013 against anti-dumping measures imposed on its chicken imports by SA.

Sumner said the US and Brazil - the world’s two largest exporters of chicken meat which, together, comprise 62.4 percent of global chicken export - had worked together “to address unfair trade restrictions in SA”.

The domestic industry has justified its stance against chicken imports on the grounds that it is fighting against dumping and is trying to protect the local industry from unfair competition. percent The South African International Trade Administration Commission has been investigating whether to increase the 13.9 percent tariff on European bone-in chicken imports imposed in December last year in a bid to block the influx of European chicken.

Sumner told delegates that SA had become one of the most protectionist countries in the world. “They do not want competition from anywhere, whether it be from the EU or the US.