May 28, 2008

EU urged to keep ban on US chicken

Consumer rights campaigners, farmers and environmentalists on Tuesday (May 27, 2008) demanded that the European Union maintain its 11-year ban on US poultry imports on health and environmental grounds.

The ban has cost US producers an estimated US$180 million (EUR114 million) a year in lost sales.

The European Commission recently said it would ask EU member states to lift it, justifying the move based on a new scientific report which did not support the ban.

But the European Consumers' Organization, together with farming lobbies and the European Environmental Bureau, called on the EU executive to keep the ban in place on health concerns.

The EU had imposed the ban earlier due to its objections over the American practice of washing chickens in a chlorine solution, saying it threatens public health and the environment.

EU consumers do not consider this process necessary if appropriate hygiene measures are applied, the three groups said in a joint letter to the commission.

Adding force to their argument, they pointed out that chlorine treatment of chickens in the US has not prevented the spread of salmonella and other diseases.