Brazilian Poultry Exporters Challenge South African Anti-Dumping

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

17 February 2012

The Brazilian Union of Agriculture (UBABEF) has begun lobbying for action to be taken at World Trade Organisation level against anti-dumping measures in place in South Africa to restrict Brazilian chicken exports.

UBABEF Chief Executive Officer, Francisco Turra said that the association had sought legal advice and would be pushing its case at governmental level in the hopes that World Trade Organisation action will remedy the matter.

UBABEF claims that South African authorities have erroneously placed anti-dumping duties ranging from 6 to 63% on Brazilian exports of whole chicken and boneless cuts, which make up 3% of the overall market, and just over a quarter of Brazilian poultry exports to the nation.

The Association has said that in determining anti-dumping duties, South African authorities failed to take into account tax levied on domestic goods in Brazil when comparing the market price in Brazil with that in South Africa. In addition, UBABEF has said South African authorities used incomplete data when assessing the market impact of Brazilian exports. Anti-dumping duties are permitted under WTO rules to prevent the sale of goods below the prevailing market price in that country, known as 'dumping'.

It has also been highlighted that the sale price of Brazilian chicken cannot be accurately compared to the price of South African poultry products, as domestic produce is generally sold as a 'high quality' product to more wealthy individuals than imported meat.

Turra said: "The industry has estimated that losses will reach USD70m annually. This complaint is misplaced because the document [is based on incomplete and] inconsistent information. There are flagrant violations of the WTO Antidumping Agreement.”

"In making its decision, it is clear that there was no consideration to the responses of South African importers, the information passed on by UBABEF cost estimate of the Brazilian product, among other technical failures," he says.

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