Chile requests raising import duties on Argentinean chicken

//30 Mar 2012
SNA, Chile’s farm bureau, has asked that the chicken and corn imported from Argentina be additionally taxed.
SNA petitioned the National Commission of Distortion, to add a 15% surcharge duty on imported Argentine chicken, an additional import duty of 25% on corn with a high percentage of cracked kernals and a 30% for feed mixtures with significant cracked corn content.
Corn is Chile’s second most important crop and forms the basis for the Chilean poultry industry. Argentina’s trade policies have as a result driven down the price of Argentine corn to levels below that of the international average price: Argentine corn is US$157 a tonne whereas US$267 a tonne.
As a result, imports of cracked corn from Argentina has grown 639% from 2008 to 2011, with feed mixtures with cracked corn in the same period rising by 41% and chicken imports increasing by 29%.
Chilean corn growers stand to lose US$108 million by some estimates, if the situation is not remedied.
About 70% of the total cost in Chile's poultry industry is due to corn prices.
In 2007, the Poultry Prodcuers Association (APA) put in a similar request for the raising of import duties on Argentinian grain, to the National Commission of Distortion, but to no avail.