The dangers facing the South African poultry industry because of a duty-free quota of chicken imports from the United States have been spelled out by FairPlay founder Francois Baird.
In an article in Business Report, Baird said the South African government was negotiating in secret with the US, committing the poultry industry to damaging sacrifices in order to negotiate a lowering of the 30% tariffs the US is charging South African exporters in other industries. Details should be made public, he said.
What is known is that South Africa has offered a continuation of the 72 000-tonne annual quota of chicken imports free of the anti-dumping duties that should apply. The quota was demanded by the US in 2015 as a condition for the renewal of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), US legislation which may not be renewed.
“What will survive, however, is a huge annual quota of US chicken that will come in at dumped prices free of any tariff restrictions, because that is what South African trade negotiators have offered to the US,” Baird wrote.
“When the government allows tens of thousands of tonnes of US chicken to enter South Africa at preferential rates, the threat to local producers is immediate. Each imported container displaces locally grown product, undermining the investments made under the poultry master plan and eroding the margins that fund transformation and job creation.
“Unlike seasonal fruit or niche commodities, poultry is a daily staple; even modest shifts in market share can cascade into farm closures, processor cutbacks and job losses in rural towns where few alternative employers exist.
“If duty-free quotas of chicken imports keep expanding, whether or not AGOA survives, it is not Washington but South Africa’s own government that is choosing to put its poultry sector at risk. Each new concession chips away at jobs, transformation, and the billions invested under the poultry master plan.
“Poultry should not be the sacrificial lamb again, not when the stakes are rural livelihoods, food security, and the credibility of industrial policy itself.
“That is what it is ultimately all about: sustaining livelihoods, deepening transformation and unlocking exports that earn foreign exchange. Left unchecked, preferential imports risk hollowing out the very base of the domestic value chain, leaving South Africa more dependent on foreign supply and less able to sustain the developmental goals government says it supports.”
Negotiations for a new trade deal with the US or any other country “must be conducted in the light, with full accounting of winners and losers, and with concrete mitigation for those who, historically, have been asked to sacrifice”.
“If the government strikes bargains in the shadows, trade negotiators may rejoice, but the first to feel the fallout will be South African workers, small contract growers, and rural economies,” Baird concluded.
