U.S. Meat Shipments Arrive in South Africa
After a long hiatus, U.S. meat products hit store shelves in South Africa recently, which could equate to an additional $160 million in yearly exports from the U.S., U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said on a conference call March 2. Froman was joined by Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Chris Coons, D-Del., who worked alongside USTR during negotiations, using the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as leverage to open up the South African market to U.S. products. “This was a team effort,” Isakson said. “We used the African Growth and Opportunity Act, its extension, to be a platform from which we tried to negotiate a favorable outcome for domestic poultry in the United States. And the end result is that’s exactly what happened."
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President Barack Obama in November threatened to remove South Africa’s AGOA benefits if it did not remove sanitary and phytosanitary barriers on imports of beef, pork, and chicken from the U.S. (see 1511050051). While it appears those removals will not happen, Froman said Obama will make his official determination soon. The first meat shipment arrived in South Africa over the weekend, and went through normal customs procedures in the last few days, being put up for sale after one last issue over pork access was resolved in the “last 24 hours,” Froman said. “Based on those developments, we’re confident that South Africa has met the agreed-upon benchmarks.”