For the first time in over 15 years, American chicken can now be bought in stores in South Africa.
That marks the end of a long-running, high profile trade dispute between the two sides, which was sparked by South Africa imposing anti-dumping tariffs on U.S. chicken imports.
The US Trade Representative Michael Froman said the arrival of the chicken imports and the resolution of a last-minute glitch about US pork imports meant South Africa had met all the benchmarks for AGOA benefits.
Last year, President Obama announced that the duty-free entry into the US of South African citrus and wine products under AGOA would end if its health restrictions on the import of US poultry, beef and pork were not lifted by January 4th.
The deadline was extended to March 15 to give both sides time to work on the logistics of actually getting the meat into South African shops.
