What word best rhymes with ‘chicken’? it’s ‘sicken’, of course. How appropriate then that this piece is about a ‘sicken’ chicken. Let me apologise in advance if I am sickening you with all the articles on chicken published in this column this year. I know that you have hardly had time to digest ‘fowl play’, which was published on August 18. But then, what would a year be without South Africa’s protracted ‘chicken wars’, or should it be the drumstick wars?

Ever wondered as to the origin of the word drumstick? It was borrowed from the reference to a turkey drumstick, which has its origin in the sixteenth century, as it resembled what people in the 1500s knew to be percussion drumsticks. These were not two straight drumsticks; rather, they looked like mallets.

From a culinary perspective, a chicken leg quarter, or simply the leg, includes two parts: the drumstick and the thigh. These two pieces may remain attached or sold as separate cuts. The thighs are sold either bone-in or boneless, while drumsticks and whole legs are most often sold with the bone.

Which brings us to the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa’s (Itac’s) Government Gazette notice of October 2, on which comments are due by October 16. If you are reading this piece after the closing date, I am sure Itac would entertain your comments if it has not already published a Correction Notice.

The gazette in question is the sole ‘customs tariff application’, as Itac refers to it, and is the seventh of 2023, which is indicative of Itac’s extremely low work rate as far as tariff applications are concerned. This in itself should raise questions as to the excess capacity that Itac possesses for conducting tariff applications, and why Itac, unlike its predecessor, the Board on Tariffs and Trade, does not review and propose tariff amendments to the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Customs Tariff. This begs another question: What happened to the SACU Itac, and its formation? To not be distracted from our focus on chicken – these are ideas for future articles to be published in this column.

As for the gazette, an application was launched by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic), whose Minister is essentially Itac’s boss. The application is in respect of a ‘Ministerial directive’ to create a temporary rebate provision rebating the full duty in Schedule No 1 and Schedule No 2 of the Customs and Excise Act of 1964 on meat and edible offal (fresh, chilled or frozen) of fowls of the species gallus domesticus, classifiable under tariff subheading 0207.1, in such quantities, at such times and subject to such conditions as Itac may allow by specific permit after consultation with the director-general of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD), for the duration of the shortage of chicken as a result of an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in South Africa. HPAI, if you need reminding, is bird flu, and Schedule No 1 refers to ‘ordinary customs duties’, and Schedule No 2 to ‘antidumping, countervailing and safeguard duties on imported goods’.

According to the gazette, the Minister directed Itac in terms of the International Trade Administration Act, 2002, to consider the creation of a temporary rebate provision on meat and edible offal (fresh, chilled or frozen) of fowls of the species gallus domesticus (chicken to you and me) taking into consideration the following aspects: the investigation must be done in an expedited manner; consideration must also be given to whether the temporary rebate should only be applicable to ordinary customs duties or whether rebating antidumping duties should also be included; and the rebate must be made subject to a rebate permit issued by Itac in consultation with the director-general of the DALRRD.

The obvious question is: Why is the application being launched only now when, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health, the first HPAI outbreak began on May 29 in Mpumalanga, which is 126 days ago? A final question would be: Why should consideration be given to rebate the antidumping duties?