U.S. poultry gains access to Guatemala
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Guatemala is the sixth-largest export market for US poultry.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced an agreement in which the government of Guatemala unilaterally agreed to accelerate the elimination of tariffs on U.S. exports of fresh, frozen and chilled chicken leg quarters.
U.S. poultry exports would have faced a tariff of 12.5 percent this year without this agreement, according to the USTR.
Separately, Guatemala and the US reached a bilateral agreement which enables Guatemala to establish a tariff rate quota allowing imports of 1,000 metric tons of processed chicken leg quarters to enter duty free each year through December 31, 2021.
The tariffs and tariff-rate quota will be eliminated effective January 1, 2022.
US agricultural exports to Guatemala totaled more than $1.1 billion in 2016 with U.S. chicken leg quarters representing approximately 8 percent or $82 million, according to the USTR.
U.S. poultry exporters had a 98 percent market share of all imports of chicken leg quarters into Guatemala in 2016. ■