SA convinced Agoa deal will clear final hurdle

South Africa is confident that the Agoa deal with the United States will not collapse.

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Johannesburg - South Africa is confident that the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) deal with the US will not collapse or lead to its exclusion from the treaty next month.

Ministers in the international co-operation, trade and security cluster said yesterday that all outstanding issues with the US had been resolved to start the implementation of Agoa. This followed a second ultimatum by US President Barack Obama to allow US poultry into the South African market by March 15.

Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Siyabonga Cwele, who chairs the cluster, said the renewal of Agoa would benefit South Africa in various sectors of the economy. “South Africa and the US have now resolved all outstanding issues relating to the agricultural imports from the US, paving the way for continuation of Agoa benefits for South Africa’s agricultural exports into the US market,” Cwele said.

He said South Africa was working with relevant stakeholders for the arrival of the first US meat products.

South Africa’s envoy on Agoa, Faizel Ismail, told Business Report on the sidelines of the briefing that the deal would go ahead. He said he did not believe that the US would carry out the threats to suspend South Africa from Agoa.

Re-entry

Ismail said poultry was already on its way to South African as part of the deal to import 65 000 tons of US poultry.

“What we can say is that we are confident the processes are under way. The consignment of poultry is on the water, in the ships, and is due to pass our port authorities and make their way to the shelves,” Ismail said.

“We are totally confident the threat of suspension will fall away well before March 15.”

While Ismail would not give the exact date for the arrival of first US products into South Africa, he said the ships would arrive in the next few days.

South Africa’s re-entry into Agoa faced serious hurdles leading to the tough talks in Paris where the poultry industry agreed to the import of 65 000 tons of US poultry into the local market.

The South African government has insisted that it had played by the rules on the re-entry into Agoa.

But Obama issued a note in November for South Africa to meet certain requirements by January 5 or it could be suspended from Agoa.

BUSINESS REPORT