China likely to ban US chicken imports

China is expected to ban imports of US chicken in coming days, a move likely to worsen the struggling American chicken industry and aggravate the trade tensions between the two countries.

 

James H. Sumner, president of the Georgia-based USA Poultry & Egg Export Council, said he learned Tuesday (Jun 30) from "several importers" in China that the US would not receive any import permits from the country's ministry of commerce starting July 1.

 

There has been no official confirmation from the Chinese government while officials for the US trade representative, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment.

 

Sumner said the potential ban seemed to be connected to the recent US spending bill that prohibits the USDA from importing Chinese poultry products as lawmakers were concerned whether China's chicken processing plants meet US standards.

 

In recent months, the US has been under pressure from lawmakers and trade groups to crack down on China's goods while China has countered with allegations of US trade protectionism.

 

The potential ban would deal a huge blow to the US chicken industry, which has been struggling with high grain prices and a bloated chicken inventory that pulls poultry prices down. Fortunately, the industry was supported by the growing exports with China surpassing Russia as the largest importer of US chicken last year, according to the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council.

 

Sumner said US chicken exporters will lose about US$370 million over the next six months if China does not resume its imports.

 

A spokesman for Tyson Foods Inc, a big exporter to China, said the company has "heard rumours" of a Chinese ban but it has not received any formal confirmation.

 

Chinese chicken has been a longstanding issue between the US and China. In April 2006, the USDA issued a rule that allowed China to export cooked poultry products to the US provided the raw poultry meat was from the US or Canada.

 

Then in 2007, US lawmakers inserted a provision in the 2008 fiscal-year spending bill that barred the USDA from importing China's poultry products which was later included in the spending bill in the next two fiscal years.