The South African Poultry Association has filed a lawsuit seeking to force the government to suspend a quota that excluded imports of US poultry from South Africa's anti-dumping tariff. The US had effectively been out of their poultry market since 2000 when the South African government imposed prohibitive anti-dumping duties on frozen, bone-in leg portions. It was reinstated in 2017 after threatening to end South Africa's duty-free access to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. That has benefitted South African wine and other agricultural exporters. CGTN's Angelo Coppola has more on this latest developments.

Trade relations appeared to be on track and then US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on South African steel and aluminum imports. This is what triggered the legal action by a sector of the South African poultry farmers.

MARTHINUS STANDER CHAIR, BROILER ORGANIZATION, SA POULTRY ASSOCIATION "The duties on steel and aluminum were put into place and now we just exercising the rules of the agreement, effectively, and that's what we are doing."

KATISHI MASEMOLA GENERAL SECRETARY, FOOD ALLIED WORKERS UNION "In a democratic South Africa, like ours, a constitutional democracy that we chose, perhaps to test certain things, you need to go to the courts of law and then they are perfectly within their right. If their intention, which we support, but of course we are mindful that if poultry gains out of the court processes, other sectors may suffer the retaliation by the United States."

Farmers and unions agree that the 65 thousand ton quota should be imposed. Farmers say they haven't benefited from the agreement because they can't export chicken parts to the US.

KATISHI MASEMOLA GENERAL SECRETARY, FOOD ALLIED WORKERS UNION "If government is forced to impose quotas it will have a positive effect, in the sense that chicken coming from the US will come in lesser numbers and that means that more jobs will be created in the local chicken industry."

MARTHINUS STANDER CHAIR, BROILER ORGANIZATION, SA POULTRY ASSOCIATION "What we know is that for every 10 thousand tons of meat that we either produce or lose, it's a thousand jobs, that's at stake. In the positive sense we can create a thousand jobs for every extra 10 thousand tons that we produce, so 65 thousand tons per annum, means 6500 Jobs, that could have been out there."

The poultry industry in the US is calling for swift reaction following the legal challenge.

MARTHINUS STANDER CHAIR, BROILER ORGANIZATION, SA POULTRY ASSOCIATION "We've not retaliated, we don't want a trade war at all. We are just standing our ground, based on what was agreed."

ANGELO COPPOLA JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA "This is the second battle in the chicken wars between South Africa and the US and hopefully it will end very quickly. So that consumers can benefit. I'm Angelo Coppola for CGTN in Johannesburg, South Africa."