South Africa said it has reached a trade deal with the US, allowing it to continue participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
Rob Davies, South African Minister of Trade and Industry, said on Friday in Pretoria at a press briefing that the negotiation has become imperative so that South Africa could avert US sanctions.
In November 2015, US President Barack Obama set December 31 as the deadline for South Africa to conclude the negotiations on opening its markets to poultry, pork and beef from the US.
Obama threatened that South Africa would face the risk of losing AGOA if it failed to meet the deadline.
The minister said under the deal, South Africa would now freely participate in AGOA.
Davies said: “Under the deal, South Africa will import 65,000 tonnes of U.S poultry a year.
“With regard to pork, South Africa has agreed to permit the unrestricted importation of the shoulder cuts after the US agreed to apply mitigation measures.
“On beef, South Africa had already agreed to import beef from the US.”
Davies said in return, South African agricultural products would continue to enjoy trade preferences for quota and duty-free entry into the US.
The minister said the US has signed all documents surrounding the health issues and they are now awaiting formal indication that the agreement has been concluded.
He said the two sides allowed negotiations to continue for some more days to resolve outstanding technical issues, particularly highly pathogenic avian influenza and salmonella.
Davies disclosed that soon after negotiations were concluded, South Africa began opening its market to U.S. poultry products.
The minister said South Africa had blocked chicken imports from the US because of outbreaks of avian flu in parts of the US and because of concerns about salmonella infection.
He said: “It has also been citing concerns about diseases in pork and beef to block imports of those products.”
Davies said South Africa exported $176 million worth of agricultural products to the US last year, mainly citrus and wine.
Davies said South Africa’s total exports amount to $4.5 billion and of these, more than $1.6 billion are to the US market.
The AGOA is a legislation that was approved by the US Congress in May 2000 to assist the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa and to improve economic relations between the US and the region.
The Act provides trade preferences for quota and duty-free entry into the US for certain goods, under certain conditions.
Xinhua/NAN.
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