While top economists from across the world are predicting further food price increases – because of the war in Ukraine – chicken importers in South Africa like to pretend that the main cause is tariffs and anti-dumping duties on the chicken they import.
The Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE) held an online media briefing this week. The emphasis was on tariffs and the claim that the local poultry industry was increasing prices because of this protection. Never mind world events, blame it all on the locals.
Attendees were also told that there was no justification for anti-dumping duties because imports were doing no harm to the local industry. As FairPlay pointed out in a statement, this contradicts the reasons given for the imposition of provisional anti-dumping duties last December. South Africa’s trade regulator, the International Trade Administration Commission, said then that chicken was being imported at dumped prices, causing “material injury and the threat of material injury” to the local industry.
Importers might have little grasp of the realities, but it’s surely unfair to pass these views on to journalists pretending they are fact.
