U.S. drops South African ag products from AGOA

The White House sent notifications to Congress that it intends to suspend South African agricultural imports from AGOA due to unresolved barriers to U.S. chicken, pork and beef.    The White House sent notifications to Congress that it intends to suspend South African agricultural imports from the benefits of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). 
   The reason is that South Africa has failed to make progress to eliminate barriers to U.S. trade and investment, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. In specific, the barriers relate to exports of U.S. poultry, pork and beef to South Africa.
   “We are disappointed that South Africa has yet to resolve these issues,” said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman in a statement Friday. “We do not take this decision lightly, and, in fact, have been working hard over many months – indeed years – to help South Africa avoid such action. 
   “Unfortunately, the issues persist.  We have, however, seen some important engagement by South Africa in recent days and remain hopeful that it will meet the mutually-agreed benchmarks relating to eliminating barriers to U.S. poultry, pork, and beef to avoid a suspension of AGOA benefits,” he added. Years of technical and political engagement with South Africa to address these issues have been unsuccessful in resolving them,” USTR said.
   AGOA, enacted in 2000, allows numerous African countries to take advantage duty-free access to the U.S. market for a wide range of approved products, with the goal to encourage trade and investment between these countries and the United States.
   Exports of U.S. poultry have been kept out of the South African market for 15 years due to a number of trade barriers. South Africa failed to meet Oct. 15 benchmarks related to U.S. poultry, including finalizing an avian influenza trade protocol for the export of U.S. poultry meat, as well as a U.S. Department of Agriculture export certificate for poultry to allow these shipments to happen by the end of the year, USTR explained.
   Exports of U.S. pork and beef have been similarly “blocked from the South African market for several years due to unwarranted sanitary restrictions,” USTR said.