Obama Admin.: South Africa to Retain AGOA Benefits

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The presidential proclamation to suspend benefits for South Africa under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) as of March 15, 2016, has been revoked, the White House announced Monday.

“The United States welcomes the significant steps undertaken by the Government of South Africa over the past several weeks to restore market access for US poultry, pork, and beef products,” said National Security Council (NSC) Spokesperson Ned Price. “We appreciate the strong collaboration between U.S. and South African trade and health experts to address outstanding concerns. As a result of this work and the Administration’s relentless commitment to holding our trading partners accountable, South Africa has met all of the benchmarks to remain eligible for African Growth and Opportunity Act benefits, and today the President issued a proclamation revoking the impending suspension of these benefits on March 15.”

On Jan. 11, Obama said that South Africa was “not meeting the requirements” to retain its benefits under AGOA and that those benefits would be suspended as of March 16.

However, South Africa has allowed US pork, beef and poultry to be sold in the country, prompting the action announced by the administration. “I have determined that suspending the application of duty-free treatment to certain goods is no longer necessary to promote compliance by South Africa with such requirements,” Obama said in a proclamation signed March 14, 2016.

Comments: Given statements by US officials as recently as March 2, it was not a surprise to see that the plan to suspend South Africa’s AGOA benefits has been suspended. Still, there remain some issues on trade that need to be worked through, particularly on pork trade with South Africa where the US National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is calling for action to allow complete access to the South African market. But apparently the progress to date is enough to allow South Africa to keep its AGOA benefits.

NOTE: This column is copyrighted material; therefore reproduction or retransmission is prohibited under U.S. copyright laws.