FairPlay welcomes provisional anti-dumping duties on chicken imports

Source: ©Andor Bujdoso via 123RF

The provisional duties will remain in effect until 14 June 2022. By that time, South Africa’s trade regulator, the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC), is expected to have completed its investigation into an application by the South African poultry industry for anti-dumping duties against the five countries.

“This is an innovative and very welcome solution to the problem of extremely lengthy investigations into applications for anti-dumping duties,” said Francois Baird, founder of the FairPlay movement.

Levelling the playing field

"The application was lodged in February this year, and a decision was not expected until mid-2022. Now we have provisional duties in place from now until June next year, which will help level the playing field for South African poultry producers until ITAC makes a final determination.

"FairPlay has repeatedly called for speedier action on anti-dumping applications, and we are pleased with this decision. Moreover, this is another nail in the coffin for dumping and predatory trade denialists."

Provisional duties

The provisional duties apply to bone-in chicken imports such as leg quarters, drumsticks, thighs and wings from the four EU countries. For Brazil the provisional duties apply to bone-in chicken portions as well as chicken breasts.

The duties range from 6% to 265,1% for various poultry producers from Brazil, from 39% to 67.4% for Denmark, 158,42% for Ireland, 5% to 96,9% from Poland and 3% to 85,8% from Spain.

"The duties are sorely needed," Baird said. "The application from the SA Poultry Association showed that dumped imports from these countries comprised more than half of bone-in imports in recent years. These are specific anti-dumping duties, applicable to these five countries being investigated for dumping chicken portions in this country."

Much needed protection

"Chicken dumping has been going on for nearly two decades, and has cost thousands of South African jobs. Anti-dumping duties are already in place for bone-in chicken imports from four countries – Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. Adding the five new countries to that list gives some protection against dumped imports from nearly all major poultry producing countries."

Baird noted that action against unfair and illegal imports was part of the poultry master plan, which commits government, the poultry industry and chicken importers to reducing imports and helping the industry to grow to serve expanded local and export markets.

"This is a victory for the local poultry industry and its workers, and for small-scale black farmers who have suffered the effects of dumped and predatory imports. FairPlay commends ITAC and the SA Revenue Service (SARS) for deciding on these provisional duties. We hope they will be confirmed when we get the final decision next year," Baird said.