Chicken Imports A poultry affair
Hold onto your feather hats, there’s a host of acronyms in this one. Amie (not the muse of the Counting Crows tune but The Association of Meat Importers and Exporters) has won a court bid to make further submissions to the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) regarding its opposition to the South African Poultry Association’s (SAPA) application to increase tariffs on imported frozen poultry. The increase you see, which could be as high as 82% versus the current 24% import duty, could mean that the only source of protein for many South Africans becomes downright unaffordable, according to Amie (not the girl in the song). Amie (the association) has also flagged the possibility that as many as 15,000 people who cut, repackage and distribute frozen chicken could lose their jobs as a result. Itac, which has resolved not to make any recommendations to the trade and industry minister until the commission meets again, has assured those involved that the investigation “is consistent with the negotiated WTO-bound most favoured nation ceiling rates”.
Comment: Sounds promising, although we can’t really be sure.