The South African government is committed to intensifying efforts to expand international market access for its agricultural commodities, Minister of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries Senzeni Zokwana said Thursday.

The minister was speaking at a meeting in Pretoria with industry stakeholders affected by trade related to exports of poultry, beef and pork meat from the United States to South Africa.

Zokwana convened the meeting to brief the affected agricultural industry stakeholders on the outcomes of the recent intensive negotiations around South Africa's eligibility to the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

The minister said the objective of the meeting was to ensure that all affected stakeholders were of the same understanding in respect to the recent negotiations between South Africa and the U.S. on key areas related to the importation of poultry, beef and pork from the U.S. to South Africa, their outcomes and the proclamation made by U.S. President Barack Obama.

The White House issued a presidential proclamation on Monday that South Africa's trade benefits on agricultural goods under the AGOA will be suspended if American poultry is not allowed into South Africa by March 15.

Zokwana stressed the importance of maintaining a close partnership between his ministry and its stakeholders not only during this time but as the norm.

The minister committed his department to ensuring that they will again work tirelessly to make sure that the deadline is met.

SA Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies announced on January 7 that his government had concluded negotiations with the U.S. on the final barriers to the import of American poultry into South Africa.

But now the U.S. government says it is testing the system to make sure the meat will be available on store shelves in South Africa.

The office of the U.S. trade representative says if the remaining benchmark – the entry of U.S. poultry into South Africa under the agreed-upon conditions – is met before March 15, Obama will be able to consider a revocation of the proclamation before suspension takes effect.

Under the deal reached with the U.S. last week, South Africa will import 65, 000 tonnes of U.S. poultry a year.

With regard to pork, South Africa has agreed to permit the unrestricted importation of the shoulder cuts after the U.S. agreed to apply mitigation measures. South Africa has also agreed to import beef from the U.S..

In return, South African agricultural products will continue to enjoy trade preferences for quota and duty-free entry into the U.S.

The March 15 deadline is the second placed on South Africa by the U.S.. In November last year, Obama set December 31 as the deadline for South Africa to conclude the negotiations on opening its markets to poultry, pork and beef from the U.S. or face the risk of losing AGOA benefits.

The two sides allowed negotiations to continue for some more days to resolve outstanding technical issues, particularly highly pathogenic avian influenza and salmonella.

South African had blocked chicken imports from the U.S. because of outbreaks of avian flu in parts of the U.S. and because of concerns about salmonella infection. It has also been citing concerns about diseases in pork and beef to block imports of those products.

SA exported 176 million U.S. dollars worth of agricultural products to the U.S. last year, mainly citrus and wine. South Africa's total exportss amount to 70 billion rand (4.5 billion U.S. dollars) and of these, 25 million rand (about 1.6 billion dollars) are to the U.S. market.

SA has allowed virtually no U.S. chicken, pork or beef imports into the local market for several years, partly through anti-dumping duties and partly through health restrictions.

Last June officials from both sides agreed partly to lift the anti-dumping duties on U.S. chicken imports, to allow a quota of 65,000 tons a year to be imported. This would be subject to several conditions being met. But virtually chicken imports were not allowed into the SA market because of outbreaks of avian flu in parts of the U.S. and because of concerns about salmonella infection.

Although the U.S. renewed the AGOA for another decade last July, Washington said South Africa's participation in AGOA had to undergo out-of-cycle review.

The AGOA, a legislation that was approved by the U.S. Congress in May 2000, is to assist the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa and to improve economic relations between the U.S. and the region. The act provides trade preferences for quota and duty-free entry into the U.S. for certain goods, under certain conditions.