EU officials hint poultry regulations will stay; US poultry ban may likely remain

Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel last week revealed that European Union is unlikely to change its ban of poultry treated with antimicrobial washes that the US has long criticized as a trade barrier not based on science.

Fischer Boel said EU producers and processors will not take risks as they poured heavy investments to ensure that poultry is raised and processed, adding there is no need for antimicrobial washes in order to clean the poultry prior to consumption.

The commissioner added that storehouses have "much more expensive solution than dipping them in chlorine." Changing EU regulations for imports would make the "competitiveness of our own producers ... more difficult," she said.

Separately, one EU official went so far as to say that even in the face of a possible World Trade Organization legal challenge by the US on the poultry issue, the EU is unlikely to alter its position on the matter. The Bush administration last week requested formal WTO consultations with the EU on poultry.

The Obama administration will have to decide whether it will proceed with this request or proceed to legal charges.

The official said that while member states could use chlorine themselves in order to place themselves on equal footing with US producers, doing so has little appeal because EU non-governmental organizations have stoked fears about the effects on the environment when disposing of chlorine washes.

EU member states have favoured maintaining the 12-year-old ban on poultry imports treated with certain anti-microbial treatments used in the US, such as chlorine. EU member states have twice rejected Commission proposals to grant access to US exports, which Commission officials promised as part of the bilateral Transatlantic Economic Council.

The EU official said EU member states want to keep US poultry exports as they fear that US exports would hurt their sales. He pointed out that it is more expensive to use cleaner production methods so that the use of chlorine is unnecessary to ensure a safe product.