S. African trade federation to protest against U.S. over sanction threat

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) will organize protests against the United States over its threat to impose trade sanctions on Pretoria, a COSATU leader said on Saturday.

Protests will take place in Cape Town to highlight the fact that the United States is not considering the development needs of South Africa, said Tony Ehrenreich, COSATU leader in the Western Cape Province.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday informed Congress of the intention to suspend the application of duty-free treatment to all agricultural products from South Africa, as stipulated in the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

The U.S. took the move because South Africa allegedly had failed to honour the commitments to the opening of the SA market to US exports of poultry, beef and pork.

The suspension, if taking effect, would affect annual agricultural exports worth about 2.4 billion rand (about 174 million US dollars), covering products such as wine, fruit juice, citrus fruit, pulp and more.

The loss of AGOA benefits for agricultural products will cost thousands of jobs in the SA agricultural sector.

According to Obama's letter to Congress, the new higher tariffs on South Africa's agricultural exports will only take effect in 60 days (5 January 2016). South Africa theoretically still has until then to sort out the remaining market access barriers and meet its commitments.

SA Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies said on Friday that removing South Africa from the AGOA would substantially diminish the significance of the Act for sub-Saharan Africa and the United States.

However, South Africa wishes to submit that it has been making continual progress during the past few months to implement an agreement reached in Paris in June this year, Davies said.

At the Paris meeting South Africa agreed to open its market to the U.S. for 65,000 tons of bone-in chicken pieces through a rebate facility. In this regard the SA International Trade and Administration Commission had already issued a draft regulation on Oct. 30, 2015.

The process of creating this quota is envisaged to be concluded before the end of this year,ding to Davies.

Davies said South Africa's veterinarians have been continuously engaged with the U.S. counterparts during the past few months on the drafting of the necessary trade and animal health protocols for poultry, beef and pork.

Significant progress has been made in this regard and the work is almost complete, Davies said.

The AGOA, a legislation that was approved by the U.S. Congress in May 2000, is to assist the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa and to improve economic relations between the U.S. and the region. The Act provides trade preferences for quota and duty-free entry into the U.S. for certain goods, under certain conditions.

Although the U.S. renewed the AGOA for another decade in July, Washington has been conducting an out-of-cycle review of SA's participation in the programme.

The U.S. has accused South Africa of blocking U.S. poultry, beef and pork imports. Because of this some congressmen have argued that South Africa not be included in a renewal of the AGOA.

The AGOA, Davies said, has contributed significantly towards building a mutually beneficial partnership between the U.S. and South Africa, which is a vital part of the regional integration and development process underway in Africa.

"South Africa meets all the eligibility criteria to remain a beneficiary of AGOA for the next 10 years," he noted. Endit