Trade barriers from South Africa, Nigeria and Taiwan worry Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil presented “trade concerns” at the World Trade Organization (WTO) with barriers to entry of Brazilian meat and other Brazilian exports in Taiwan, South Africa, and Nigeria, but did not get positive signals that the difficulties will be lifted.

The issues of Brazil and other agricultural exporters in the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) illustrate the growing suspicions of violations of the SPS Agreement, which deals with food and plant safety. In several cases, a “specific trade concern” later turns into a dispute before the judges, with the risk of retaliation against the country violating the rules.

In total, 47 “specific trade concerns” were presented last week in the SPS Committee, several of them repeating what has been questioned for a long time and without a solution so far.

Brazil complained that Taiwan has intensified its blockade of Brazilian chicken meat since 2016. And that it has often responded to questions from Taiwan, but then comes new questions without ceasing, while the market remains closed.

Taiwan responded that countries that want to export poultry meat to its market must be recognized as free of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and Newcastle disease (ND) by its Agriculture Council – and that Brazil would not be recognized as free of the second disease (ND).

The Taiwanese delegation reported that it had conducted a risk analysis and concluded that “Brazil has not conducted active surveillance and other relevant measures according to the guidelines of the OIE, the world animal health organization.”

Brazil also complained about South African restrictions on Brazilian exports of beef, pet food, and other animal by-products.

The Brazilian delegation advised that the government has already proposed a model of International Health Certificate to the South African authorities, but did not get an answer. That is, in practice, the South Africans are violating the rules of the SPS Agreement.

South Africa responded that Brazil has different FMD zones throughout the country, which makes it difficult to evaluate control measures. It said that the information given by Brazil is under review.

South Africa added that it is already importing meat from Brazil, both poultry and beef, but that in the last two years “there have been a significant number of notifications of shipments that have not complied with the sanitary requirements.”

Hence, South Africa says it has realized the need to be more cautious when assessing market access from Brazil and to do due diligence on such requests.

Another Brazilian complaint was about Nigeria’s restrictions on the entry of pork and poultry, milk and dairy products, genetic material, and live cattle.

According to Brazil, the Nigerian authorities have simply not provided any response to Brazilian proposals for sanitary and animal health certifications over the past five years. Nigeria said it has taken note of the Brazilian complaint and will respond “in due course.”