The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which had been due to expire at the end of September, cleared Congress and was signed into law by President Obama on June 29. AGOA gives sub-Saharan African nations duty-free access to U.S. markets for certain goods, and also gives the administration the ability to withdraw, suspend, or limit benefits if designated AGOA countries do not comply with our eligibility criteria.
Under the current law, the U.S. government’s only option for punishing an African country that fails to live up to the trade standards outlined in AGOA is the complete termination of benefits for that country. The reauthorization legislation for AGOA passed today gives the United States the option to selectively limit or temporarily suspend benefits without having to terminate them completely. This gives the United States the upper hand in trade negotiations, further protecting American businesses.
“We are supportive of the language in the bill that was signed by the president, as it was helpful in our negotiations with the South Africans,” said NCC President Mike Brown. “We especially want to thank Senator Isakson, Coons and others for their work in making sure it was included in the final package. Our sights are now set on getting U.S. chicken back into the South African market and implementing the terms of the agreement that was reached.”
This language in the ‘‘Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015″ can be found on Page 6, Section (E) https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/hr1295/BILLS-114hr1295enr.pdf:
- (E) INITIATION OF OUT-OF-CYCLE REVIEWS FOR CERTAIN COUNTRIES.—Recognizing that concerns have been raised about the compliance with section 104(a) of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (19 U.S.C. 3703(a)) of some beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries, the President shall initiate an out-of-cycle review under sub paragraph
- (A) with respect to South Africa, the most developed of the beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries, and other beneficiary countries as appropriate, not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015.
Background
For the past 15 years, U.S. poultry exports have been unfairly excluded from the South African market through the imposition of spurious and WTO-inconsistent antidumping duties. Last year, Senators Isakson and Coons informed South African government officials that they were unlikely to support renewal of AGOA duty preferences for South Africa unless this situation was corrected.
In March, 13 senators wrote to the South African government to express their concern about the lack of progress being made in negotiations between the South African and American poultry industries.
The South African government took notice of this position taken by U.S. Senators from chicken producing states and encouraged their industry to resolve this issue with the U.S. chicken industry.
Representatives of the U.S. and South African poultry industries reached agreement in early June on a framework to reopen the South African market to U.S. chicken. The framework provides for the return of exports of U.S. bone-in chicken parts to South Africa after both governments complete the necessary steps required to implement the agreement.
