The South African Sugar Association applied in February to have the tariff raised to $856 a tonne, but the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC), which conducts customs tariff investigations and proposes trade remedies, set a lower import duty.
“While the level is not at the maximum bound rate as initially requested by the industry in the application, the $680 per tonne will provide the immediate relief urgently required by the industry and sufficient trade protection against the surge of imports,” trade minister Rob Davies said in a statement.
The sugar industry contributes around 14 billion rand to South Africa’s gross domestic product and employs 85,000 people directly and another 350,000 indirectly in the main sugar-growing regions of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga provinces.
Major local producer Tongaat Hulett said in May it intends expanding into Africa as part of a strategy to bulk up in the central and southern regions of the continent. The firm partly blamed sugar imports for a fall in profits.
Source:NASDAQ
