LETTER: Facts overlooked in poultry antidumping criticism
David Wolpert is less than fair in his criticism of antidumping duties on imported chicken (Poultry tariffs hurt struggling South Africans, March 8).
His ire is focused on provisional antidumping duties imposed last December on frozen chicken portions from Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Poland and Spain. He gives the impression that these duties were capriciously imposed, without adequate investigation and possibly under pressure because of the localisation programme promoted by trade, industry & competition minister Ebrahim Patel.
He describes the duties as “cruel” and “insane”. What Wolpert does not say is that antidumping duties are just that — they are imposed to counter dumping, where goods are imported here for less than the price they are sold at in producer countries. This is unfair trade in terms of World Trade Organization rules, and antidumping duties are imposed under those same rules, designed to ensure fair trade and fair competition.
Wolpert also does not mention the antidumping duties were applied for by local chicken producers, which supplied detailed evidence of dumping, the harm it causes to local producers and jobs, and the causal link between the two. It is on the basis of this evidence and their own further investigations, which included consideration of detailed submissions by the exporters and local importers, that trade regulator the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) has imposed provisional antidumping duties and will provide a final determination by midyear.
Wolpert is lining up with his former colleagues in the chicken importing business to attack the duties by discrediting Itac and its methodologies. FairPlay predicted last year that they would blame the ref, and we’ve been proved right.
There is one area where we welcome Wolpert’s support. FairPlay has campaigned for several years to have chicken declared a VAT-free product. Given the food price inflation being caused by the Ukraine conflict, that is even more urgent in 2022.
Francois Baird, Founder, FairPlay
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