News
EU likely to lift 11 year poultry ban
The Transatlantic Economic Council's preparations to meet in Brussels next week brings a renewed focus on the European Union's ban on U.S. poultry. EU's Enterprise and Industry Commissioner says the EU is likely to lift the 11-year ban. The EU banned imports of U.S. poultry on account of U.S. processors' use of chlorine in processing.
May 7, 2008 By meatingplace.com
May 7, 2008
The European Union is likely to lift its 11-year ban on U.S. poultry imports,
the EU's Enterprise and Industry Commissioner said on Tuesday, according to
Reuters.
"The Commission will find a solution and the only
solution is to lift the ban," Guenter Verheugen said.
The renewed focus
on the EU's ban comes as the Transatlantic Economic Council prepares to meet in
Brussels next week to discuss a variety of trade issues.
U.S. officials
have long said that the ban was politically motivated, despite the EU's
insistence that the move was based in science. The EU banned imports of U.S.
poultry on account of U.S. processors' use of chlorine in processing.
"The real world evidence is that billions of people around the world
have consumed wholesome, safe U.S. poultry for decades without any harmful
effects from the theoretical risks raised by the EU," top U.S. poultry officials
Bill Roenigk of the National Chicken Council and Joel Brandenberger of the
National Turkey Federation wrote in a statement on U.S.-EU poultry
trade.
Poultry is only one of about 30 unresolved trade issues between
the United States and the European Union, though some believe that if poultry
trade is not resolved, discussion of other issues could be compromised.
