US Poultry Sales to China Remain Blocked

U.S. poultry exports to China have been effectively blocked for the rest of 2009, USA Poultry and Egg Export Council president Jim Sumner said on Tuesday during a visit to China, the top export market for U.S. poultry.

Photo By: Rick Audet Buffalo Chicken Wings

Sumner said the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, which said last week it was not blocking imports, had not changed its stance during talks with him in Beijing.

But China had issued 70 percent fewer automatic registration forms for poultry imports, and none for U.S. shipments, effectively blocking trade, he said. The ARFs are issued twice yearly.

"They have apparently taken this action to not allow U.S. exports for the duration of this year," he told Reuters. "I did understand the reasons for their position, but we do strongly disagree with the outcome.

"I'm optimistic that we'll find an acceptable solution that will allow for trade to continue."

Asked about the possibility of taking the case to the World Trade Organisation, he said he hoped the situation could be resolved more quickly.

"The WTO is certainly an option, but that takes a long time. That would probably take 18 months. Both sides realize that we don't want to take 18 months.

"We're hopeful that there will be opportunities either for China to look at other options or our government and our Congress will get the message that this is not the way to trade with China," he said.

China launched a WTO dispute in April, complaining about U.S. laws on imports of poultry from China.

"We are in full support with the Chinese position of getting a fair and equitable review of their right to export cooked poultry to the U.S. and we believe these decisions should be based on science, not on politics," Sumner said.

USAPEEC in an industry trade group that works to develop overseas markets for U.S. poultry. China is the top overseas buyer of U.S. poultry and took about $372 million worth so far this year.

The U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are investigating the poultry import restrictions, the latest in a spate of trade skirmishes between the two countries.

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China has banned U.S. pork since the outbreak of a new strain of H1N1 flu virus -- a measure that world health and trade officials have said is unwarranted. U.S. complaints have involved China's export curbs on some industrial raw materials and alleged dumping of some types of steel products. 

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