The AGOA had been slowed down by the worries of the southern African nation, as new concerns in the area sought to block poultry imports from the USA.

Christopher Wood, an economic diplomacy researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, said the country was maintaining “anti-dumping measures against certain chicken pieces”, as it related to the US market.

He said such chicken pieces, classified as brown meat chicken, were unpopular with US consumers, and that poultry producers there were simply treating them as waste.

The result of this, is that US producers are willing to offload such poultry cuts at lower prices, or seek to export them to markets elsewhere.

“US producers are currently seeking to dump their goods in South Africa; selling them at less than the cost of manufacturing, and threatening South African producers who cannot compete with this unfair trade,” he said.