Brazil Poultry Group to Approach WTO on South Africa Chicken

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — Brazil’s poultry association said it will ask the government to approach the World Trade Organization about South Africa imposing higher tariffs on some imports from the South American nation.

These are “flagrant violations of the WTO’s anti-dumping agreement,” Ubabef Markets Director Francisco Turra said in a statement posted on the Sao Paulo-based organization’s website yesterday and dated Feb. 13. “It’s clear that South African importers’ responses and information from Ubabef about how the costs of the Brazilian products are calculated weren’t considered, besides other technical failures.”

Import charges of 6 percent to 63 percent have been imposed on the poultry for six months, as initial information showed Brazilian producers are dumping products in South Africa and neighboring countries, Francois Dubbelman of Pretoria-based FC Dubbelman and Associates, which represents the South African Poultry Association, said yesterday.

The South American producers include BRF Brasil Foods SA, the world’s biggest poultry exporter, and Seara Alimentos, the pork and poultry unit of Marfrig Alimentos SA, Latin America’s second-largest producer of beef. Brasil Foods declined to comment, the company said in an e-mailed response to a query today.

South Africa’s International Trade Administration Commission, which asked for the tariffs, will finalize its findings once interested parties have commented on the preliminary outcome, it said in its Jan. 30 report.

via Brazil Poultry Group to Approach WTO on South Africa Chicken – Businessweek.