Mr. President, I would like to speak for a few minutes about our nation’s economic relationship with Africa and one area of concern I have as we work toward further strengthening our ties.
Since its passage under President Clinton, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, known as AGOA, has been a powerful tool for increasing trade and boosting economies across the African Continent, and no country has taken greater advantage of the opportunities provided through AGOA than South Africa.
Over the past 4 years, as the chairman of the African Affairs Subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Relations, I have worked closely with African leaders and know the importance of AGOA to their economies and to their growing middle classes. Just last week I met with a group of African trade ministers who emphasized to me how important prompt reauthorization of AGOA is to them, to their nations, and to tens of thousands of men and women who work in reliance upon AGOA.
AGOA is not a partisan issue. I have worked closely with my Republican colleague and friend from Georgia Senator Isakson on its reauthorization. But, as I have also long believed, trade must be fair, and with increased trade comes a responsibility by both parties to play by the same set of rules.
I am concerned because I fear that South Africa’s refusal to drop its antidumping duties that prevent American poultry from having free and fair access to the South African market will have negative repercussions for our relationship and South Africa’s economy.
Much of the time, nations will use antidumping duties to prevent other countries from exporting artificially cheap goods into their economies, putting their own businesses at an unfair disadvantage. But what South Africa has done for years in this area lacks any merit. They are using the same justification that China has used to ban American poultry imports. They claim our poultry is being sold below market value. Not only is this claim false, the World Trade Organization recently deemed China’s nearly identical ban to be illegal.
American companies want the chance to sell healthy, affordable, and safe poultry to South Africa and at a fair market value. So during the Africa leaders summit last August, which brought the heads of state of more than 50 African nations here to Washington and to our Capitol, I had the opportunity to meet with President Zuma of South Africa as well as other South African senior officials. During our meeting we discussed their country’s policies toward our country, the importance of renewing AGOA, and also my concerns about their unfair practices with regard to our poultry industry. I was optimistic that following our constructive conversations, we could work together with them and with South Africa’s poultry industry to get rid of this inappropriate trade barrier. In September we also had constructive meetings where our Ambassador and their Ambassador were present, and leaders of both poultry sectors began constructive conversation. But soon thereafter their willingness to engage abruptly stopped. They apparently think they can continue to benefit from AGOA and shirk their most basic trade responsibilities.
In my home State of Delaware the poultry industry supports more than 13,000 jobs and has long been the backbone of our agriculture sector. I have made clear to our friends and partners in South Africa that although I deeply believe in their nation’s promise and future, my first responsibility is and always will be to my home State and my constituents. Across the country–and Senator Isakson’s State of Georgia is the single biggest poultry-growing State in the country–the United States supports 1.8 million American jobs, contributing more than $470 billion to our Nation’s economy.
So I want to be clear about this tonight, as I have been before. I support AGOA’s reauthorization, and I hope we can negotiate a fair path forward. But South Africa cannot expect to continue to reap the benefits of increased trade without following fair trade rules. They can’t expect us to open up our markets wide to duty-free and quota-free access for South African goods if they will not fairly open theirs. If they insist on maintaining their longstanding and illegal antidumping duties on American poultry, I will do everything in my power to ensure they do not continue to benefit from AGOA. The choice is theirs.
Senator Isakson of Georgia and I communicated this concern to President Zuma back in December in writing, and this week we will write to the Senate Finance Committee with the same message. We only have a short period of time where we can get a long-term extension of AGOA done, and I will work hard to reauthorize and improve AGOA so its benefits are even more widely felt on the continent of Africa, but I won’t allow it to include countries that violate fair trade rules, which means an important ally and partner of the United States–South Africa–won’t be included if they are not willing to play by the rules. There are too many jobs at stake, too much work to do to allow a critical trading partner such as South Africa to continue its unfair treatment of American industry.
I hope and pray we can still resolve this needless impasse, but if we don’t, my commitment and my path forward is clear.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.