South Africa’s Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition along with the International Trade Administration (ITA) recently announced rebates for boneless and bone-in chicken cuts imported into the country.
Rebates on imports of bone-in cuts will be 25 percent while imports of boneless cuts will be 30 percent.
As a result of South Africa’s ongoing Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreak, the Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition issued a directive to investigate a possible temporary set of rebates on chicken imports to meet domestic demand and avoid further meat and poultry price inflation, leading to the decision to issue the rebates.
The rebates will assist local buyers in importing chicken products, which currently face tariffs of 62 percent on bone-in chicken products and 42 percent on boneless chicken products. South Africa raised these tariffs in March 2020 from 37 percent for bone-in products and 12 percent for boneless products.
U.S. chicken exports to South Africa also face Anti-Dumping Duties on bone-in chicken products, as do exports from Brazil, Poland, Ireland, Denmark, and Spain.
South Africa is eligible for benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the U.S. market for many products. To be eligible for these AGOA benefits, countries must “establish or make continual progress toward establishing a market-based economy, the rule of law, political pluralism, and the right to due process,” according to the U.S. Trade Representative. “Additionally, countries must eliminate barriers to U.S. trade and investment, enact policies to reduce poverty, combat corruption, and protect human rights.”
Thirty-two countries are eligible for AGOA benefits in 2024. In 2015, Congress passed legislation modernizing and extending the program to 2025, upon which the agreement is up for reconsideration and renewal.
