FairPlay has taken chicken importers to task for their loud and frequent opposition to a poultry import tariff renewal while it is under consideration by South African authorities.
Key takeaways:
- Desperate public campaign: Chicken importers are aggressively lobbying in the media because they fear losing both their legal argument at ITAC and the profits from duty-free imports.
- Severe economic threat: Scrapping duties across target countries would dismantle crucial trade policy measures. This risks local poultry jobs, rural development, and national food security.
- Moral and economic divide: Local producers play a vital national role by providing affordable meat (over 60% of South Africa’s consumption), whereas importers exploit cheap dumped chicken for high profits without lowering prices for consumers.
The arguments are in, both for and against. Now South Africa’s trade regulator, the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) is considering whether or not to renew anti-dumping duties on poultry imports from Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
But, instead of waiting for the decision, chicken importers, represented by the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE) have used multiple media outlets to argue that the anti-dumping duties should fall away.
It is essentially shouting “unfair”, presumably in the hope that ITAC’s commissioners will hear them. ITAC has already said that the South African Poultry Association (SAPA) has presented what could be a compelling case for the renewal of the anti-dumping duties.
FairPlay thinks importers are making so much noise because they fear they have lost, both the argument at ITAC and the additional revenue they would make from duty-free chicken imports.
FairPlay founder Francois Baird said in a statement that importers were opposing anti-dumping duties on chicken portions from all nine producer countries subject to them.
They clearly hoped that anti-dumping duties would be lifted from Germany, the Netherlands and the UK in the present case, to be followed by the United States, Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Spain and Poland in other legal challenges.
“That is a horrifying prospect for anybody who cares about South African jobs, our poultry industry, the interests of South African consumers and the country’s food security. Not to mention income to Treasury and rural development. South African poultry farmers are small town employment machines,” Baird said.
“The poultry industry’s stated objective is to feed the nation with high-quality affordable chicken. It has done so for decades, to the benefit of millions of low-income households for whom chicken is their main source of meat protein.
Chicken comprises more than 60% of the meat consumed in South Africa.
“With unemployment and malnutrition at record levels, these objectives are of national strategic importance.”
Importers, on the other hand, did not pass on low chicken import prices to consumers – dumped chicken sold at market prices and importers pocketed fat profits.
“Dumped chicken cheats South Africans and boosts foreign jobs,” Baird said.
“Chicken importers can shout as loudly as they like, but they are on the wrong side of this argument, economically and morally.”
