Imposing anti-dumping duties on chicken imports had helped the local industry to recover, the South African Poultry Association (SAPA) told The Star newspaper.
Izaak Breitenbach, the head of SAPA’s broiler organisation, said dumping, according to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), is unfair trade where a country exports their problem (oversupply) to become the problem of the importing country.
“This is not allowed in terms of world trade, and the remedy is an anti-dumping duty. South Africa was the dumping ground for nine countries in terms of poultry, and we have remedied the situation by getting anti-dumping duties against these countries.”
Breitenbach added that this has allowed the local industry to recover and improve efficiencies and to supply chicken at really low prices to consumers. “We as the poultry industry don’t lobby for harsher duties; we only lobby for a stop to the practice of dumping.”
Breitenbach said Sapa doesn’t anticipate applying for any further duties.
Professor Lawrence Edwards from the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town said it is important to differentiate between general tariff changes and anti-dumping (AD) duties. “General tariffs are applied on a most favoured nation (MFN) basis and apply equally to all countries that are not part of preferential trade agreements (e.g. SA is part of a free trade agreement with the EU, and tariffs on poultry are set to zero).”
Edwards added that anti-dumping duties are used for very specific reasons, and their use is regulated as part of a country’s participation in the multilateral trade agreements of the WTO. “They can only be used if: (a) there is evidence that foreign exporters are pricing below normal prices (e.g. they sell to SA at a price below the price they sell elsewhere, including in their domestic market) – called ‘dumping’, and (b) there is evidence that there is harm to the local industry.”
Anti-dumping duties can be applied for five years, after which an extension requires a further investigation.
