Johannesburg- The Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (Amie) has until June 26 to make supplementary submissions regarding the rise in chicken import duty costs.
The High Court in Pretoria imposed the deadline on Tuesday, Amie said in a statement.
Amie had filed an application against the SA Poultry Association (SAPA) and the International Trade Administration Commission of SA (Itac) to get access to information SAPA had supplied to Itac.
It was opposed to increased tariffs, which it feared could be anything up to 82 percent, from 24 percent.
Amie was concerned that higher import duties would push up prices for consumers, whose only source of protein, in many cases, was chicken. It warned the move could cause job losses among the 15,000 people who cut, repackaged, and distributed the imported chicken.
“For many South Africans chicken is the only access to animal protein,” Amie chief executive David Wolpert said in a statement.
“The reason Amie applied to the court was to access information which formed the basis of the duty increase application and which was not supplied to parties wishing to oppose this request.”
Subsequent to the initiation of the high court application the parties reached an agreement and a draft order was made.
SAPA chief executive Kevin Lovell said as part of the agreement Itac undertook to provide an update of the PricewaterhouseCoopers' report. It contained information the producers used to determine the tariffs.
Itac also had to provide a non-confidential verification report on the confidential part of PWC's report by 4pm on Tuesday.
Wolpert said: “This additional and new information will put importers in a better position to be able to defend the interests of the poor, who will be severely prejudiced by any increase in prices.”
Amie had until June 26 to give a supplementary written response to Itac on SAPA's application for an increase in customs duty for imported poultry meat. SAPA then had until July 4 to submit a written response to Amie's submission. - Sapa