South Africa has again requested the establishment of two panels at a meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to examine what, in its view, were unscientific and discriminatory measures placed on citrus imported from the country by the European Union (EU).
This followed over 20 years of engagements with the EU to find an amicable solution.
In a joint statement issued by the the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) and the Citrus Growers' Association of Southern Africa (CGA), the government on Friday said the initial requests for the establishment of the panels were made towards the end of last month.
“These requests were not accepted by the EU. In line with the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding, today (26 July 2024) South Africa requested for the second time for the establishment of the panels. The requests made today were automatically approved by the Chair of the WTO DSB.”
Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau, clarified government's actions at the WTO, saying South Africa was asking for justified, proportionate and appropriate measures.
“The WTO process gives us a mechanism with which to potentially solve the problem amicably,” Tau said.
“The WTO dispute mechanism ensures a lasting solution to address our concerns and is utilised by all trading partners to resolve trade disputes and is therefore not an aggressive or confrontational stance by South Africa.”
According to the statement, these WTO dispute settlement steps were taken to address the EU’s regulations on two separate plant health issues of Citrus Black Spot (CBS) and False Codling Moth (FCM).
The South African government challenged these EU regulations in order to protect the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in the local citrus industry. This was also to take a stand against measures that were not based on scientific evidence.
Currently, South African citrus growers were said to be spending approximately R3.7 billion per year to comply with CBS and FCM measures. The country said these measures were unscientific and unnecessarily restrictive as South Africa already has an effective world-class risk management system that ensured safe citrus exports.
Emerging citrus growers were especially hard hit with significant implications for livelihoods and jobs. The measures at issue affect not only South Africa, but also other southern African developing and least developed countries that depend on SA's infrastructure for their citrus fruit exports.
Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, said 140 000 livelihoods at farm level alone were sustained by the citrus industry.
“It is a priority for the government to protect these jobs and to make sure citrus can continue to play the essential economic role it does in so many rural communities throughout the country,” he said.
In its statement, the government said the request to establish the two panels was a significant development.
“This is the first time that South Africa advances into the panel stage of the WTO DSB process. The panel phase begins the adjudicative process of the disputes.”
In July 2022, South Africa initiated consultations with the EU in the WTO on FCM, but with no satisfactory conclusion. In April this year, South Africa requested consultations with the EU on the CBS matter, which initiated a process that ended without an amicable solution.
A WTO dispute case could take on average approximately 18 months to be adjudicated and the panel ruling could be appealed to the Appellate Body, which was currently unable to consider cases due to a lack of a quorum.
In Friday’s DSB meeting SA government's representatives reiterated the legal basis of their complaints at the WTO headquarters in Geneva which include among others that the measures were not based on scientific principles and were maintained without sufficient scientific evidence; the EU failed to apply the measures in a uniform, impartial and reasonable manner and the measures were more trade-restrictive than required and were applied in a manner that was not in accordance with the provisions of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, of which the EU was a signatory.
Justin Chadwick, CEO of the Citrus Growers Association (CGA, said the SA government has their full support.
“Europe represents over one third of all our citrus exports. It is a huge market and the very foundation of citrus profitability in SA, Chadwick said.
“Apart from these measures currently threatening the citrus industry's sustainability, if the EU were to intensify them in any way, the consequences would be job losses on a massive scale.”
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