Measures to curb dumping welcomed
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that the poultry sector and other industries under pressure will receive trade protection as part of the government’s economic stimulus and recovery plan, was welcomed by the FairPlay movement, which fights for jobs and against predatory trade practices.
‘Concerted government action against dumping and other predatory practices is what we have been fighting for all along, and we are heartened at this recognition of the importance of the poultry industry as a strategic industry worth investing in,’ said FairPlay founder, Francois Baird.
‘We expect that the sugar industry will also receive adequate support, as the President promised earlier this year.’
Dumped imports have plunged the chicken and sugar industries into crisis and have cost thousands of jobs.
The only way to promote growth is by putting an end to dumping, which is at the tipping point of causing irreversible material damage to these industries.
‘This will only happen if there is trade protection and a range of other measures taken by the government,’ said Baird.
SA Revenue Services statistics show that chicken imports soared in the first half of 2018, outstripping the import volumes of the previous two years.
‘The figures are shocking if you consider that parts of the European Union have not even resumed dumping following earlier bird flu outbreaks,’ said Baird.
‘Once they are cleared, the volumes dumped on our market will escalate even further, putting thousands more South African jobs at risk.’
Sugar over-production
FairPlay noted that the overproduction of sugar in heavily subsidised countries such as Brazil has caused a constant glut of cheap sugar in the world, which has led to most of the other 120 sugar-producing countries raising tariffs and other barriers to protect local industries and local jobs.
South Africa needs to do the same to save this strategic industry, which contributes R14-billion a year to the GDP and employs 85 000 people directly and 350 000 others indirectly.
Trade Union leader Katishi Masemola, Secretary General of the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU), agreed with Baird, saying that the President’s commitment to employ trade measures ‘within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules’ is to be cautiously welcomed.
‘The poultry and sugar sectors need meaningful steps to defend them without undue delay.
‘We will scrutinise WTO rules urgently to ensure that we hold the government accountable for saving our local industries and the thousands upon thousands of local jobs that depend on them,’ he said.