Chicken importers have been dealt a severe blow by the Supreme Court of Appeal, which rejected their efforts to prevent the renewal of anti-dumping duties on chicken imports from three European countries.
The Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE) had objected to the five-year renewal in 2020 of anti-dumping duties against Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
They succeeded in the Gauteng high court in 2023, when the renewal was rejected because the court found that the decision of the Minister of Finance to approve continued anti-dumping duties was flawed. The duties remained in place while that decision was appealed.
The high court ruling has been overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeal, which found that the ministerial decision was valid and should remain in force.
The Supreme Court of Appeal ordered AMIE to pay the costs of the legal counsel representing the three appellants – the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC), the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, and the SA Poultry Association (SAPA).
The appeal court also rejected AMIE’s reasoning that ITAC should have verified the information presented to it before starting the renewal process, known as a sunset review, for the continuation of anti-dumping duties.
The court pointed out that detailed verification was required in an original application for duties, but that World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules set less onerous requirements for a sunset review. ITAC’s decision to initiate the review was therefore not misleading, as AMIE had contended.
In addition, the court found that AMIE had failed to provide an acceptable explanation of why it took 28 months, instead of the prescribed 180 days, to lodge a legal challenge to ITAC’s sunset review.
This is only one of the anti-dumping decisions that AMIE is challenging. It is contesting the renewal of anti-dumping duties on chicken imports from the United States, which have been in place since 2000, as well as the new anti-dumping duties imposed on Brazil and four European Union countries.
Whether the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment will affect those court cases remains to be seen.
