August 21, 2013
USDA to discuss possibility of importing processed chicken from China
US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is sending two senior officials to Beijing for a bilateral meeting about opening the US market to Chinese-processed chicken.
Al Almanza, administrator of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and Dan Englejohn, FSIS' deputy assistant administrator, will be visiting Beijing this week for the meeting, which is a culmination of seven years of negotiations.
US officials hope a deal will ease tensions between the two trading partners and convince China to lift restrictions on US chicken, beef and other commodities.
China demanded US to allow in Chinese chicken in 2006. In 2010, China accused US of unfairly selling its chicken to China at below-market-value prices, and imposed 105.4% tariffs on shipments. The move cut off 80% of US chicken exports to China, which the World Trade Organization ruled as unjustified in July this year.
