In November, US President Barack Obama threatened to eject South Africa from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), citing continued barriers to US imports and setting a January 31 deadline.

That deadline passed without resolution, but intense negotiations resolved the impasse over the last week, South African Trade Minister Rob Davies said at a press conference Thursday.

“All negotiations have been concluded and all outstanding documents have been signed by both parties,” he said.

“We expect South Africa can now participate in AGOA without any interruptions to trade flows.”

During months of negotiations, South Africa last year agreed to a 65,000-tonne quota of US chicken imports and also lifted a ban on US beef imports in place following outbreaks of mad cow disease.

But concerns over salmonella levels in US chickens had remained a sticking points in discussions.

AGOA was created in 2000 to help boost exports from African countries deemed to be democratic and applying good economic governance.

If South Africa had been thrown out of AGOA, farmers faced substantial losses in export revenue, compounding problems for the slowing economy.

In 2013, the country shipped $253 million worth of agricultural products to the United States.