In the Government Gazette of April 30, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) gave notice of the retrospective increase, effective from April 1, of the annual quota for frozen bone-in cuts of the species Gallus domesticus, chicken to you and me, originating in or imported from the US.

The quota increased from 71 963 tonnes (also known as metric tonnes) to 73 881 tonnes, as documented in the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) Minute M12/2025, which, at the time of writing, was not published on its website. (The document is accessible at https://itac.org.za/tariff-investigations/ministerial-minutes/.)

The quota increase was enacted through the amendment of Part 2 of Schedule No 4 of the Customs and Excise Act, 1964: General Rebates of Customs Duties, Fuel Levy and Environmental Levy – Temporary Rebates of Customs Duties, which permits US frozen chicken to be sold in South Africa through a specific permit or recommendation of the director-general of the Department of Agriculture (DoA), subject to conditions set out by Itac. The US currently exports frozen chicken to South Africa under a quota that exempts such imports from antidumping duties.

The previous quota increase from 71 290 tonnes to 71 632 tonnes was published in the Government Gazette of March 31, 2023, with retrospective effect from April 1, 2022, and documented in Itac Minute M04/2022.

Before this, there were four Itac Minutes documenting quota increases: August 6, 2020 – Minute 06/2020, from 68 590 tonnes to 69 972 tonnes; May 21, 2019 – Minute 02/2019, from 65 417 tonnes to 68 590 tonnes; May 23, 2018 – Minute 06/2018, from 65 000 tonnes to 65 417 tonnes; and February 2, 2015 – Minute 08/2015, which saw the introduction of a quota set at 65 000 tonnes, constituting 6% of the Southern African Customs Union’s (Sacu’s) 2014 bone-in chicken production.

What is the significance of 2015? Does the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) ring a bell? During negotiations, the quota was agreed upon, with no antidumping duties applied to US frozen chicken.

The Schedule No 4 Rebate Item 460.03/0207.14.9/01.07, for which the ‘Extent of Rebate’ is the full anti-dumping duty, which appeared in the Government Gazette of April 30, reads: “Frozen meat of the species Gallus domesticus, cut in pieces with bone in and imported from or originating in the US, in such quantities, at such times and subject to such conditions as Itac may allow by specific permit on recommendation of the director-general: the DoA, provided that (a) with effect from April 1, 2016, permits may be issued by Itac for meat imported in terms of this rebate Item; (b) from the date this rebate item comes into operation up to and including March 31, 2016, meat imported in terms of this rebate item shall be on a first come, first served basis; (c) the meat subject to the provisions of this Rebate Item may not exceed a basic quota of 73 881 metric tonnes; (d) the quota period is April 1 to March 31; (e) prior to April 1, 2016, the quota shall be 16 250 metric tonnes; (f) as from April 1, 2017, a growth factor as determined by the DoA is applied to the basic quota annually; (g) the meat imported in terms of this Rebate Item may not be removed outside South Africa for consumption in any of the BLNS countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland); (h) the permit is not transferable and may not be used to obtain meat to the benefit of any entity or person not named in the permit issued by Itac; (i) this rebate item shall be suspended if any benefits that South Africa enjoyed under Agoa as at November 1, 2015, are suspended, and shall remain suspended for as long as those benefits under Agoa remain suspended; and (j) this rebate item is suspended in terms of paragraph (i) as from the date the Minister of Trade and Industry submits written confirmation to the Minister of Finance that South Africa’s benefits under Agoa have been suspended.”

Attentive readers might well question the reference to ‘BLNS’, as it has been updated to ‘BeLN’ to reflect Swaziland’s name change to Eswatini on April 19, 2018.