US government, lawmakers strike deal to allow Chinese chicken imports

 

The agreement, now slated to be included in the fiscal-year 2010 spending bill being considered by Congress for the US Department of Agriculture, would let the USDA finish the work it began years ago to open the US market to processed chicken exports from China.

 

Critics in Congress of Chinese food safety, chief among them Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., have blocked the US Department of Agriculture for two years from allowing the imports. But DeLauro said Friday she is now satisfied with a USDA pledge to assure the safety of chicken imports from China.

 

The WTO agreed in July to set up a panel to rule on China's claim that the US is unfairly blocking Chinese exports of processed chicken.

 

DeLauro, in a statement released Friday (September 25), said: "In short, this new language ensures the USDA will perform the necessary inspection and monitoring functions to minimize possible food safety threats from Chinese processed poultry imports."

 

The US chicken industry, which relies on China to buy up almost all the chicken feet produced domestically, has been concerned recently that China might somehow restrict that trade in retaliation to both the US prohibition on Chinese chicken as well as the Obama administration's decision to place duties on the import of Chinese tires.

 

The US exported 436,544 tonnes of chicken worth US$376 million to China during the first seven months of 2009, about half of which were chicken feet, according to the National Chicken Council.

 

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, in a separate statement, said the agreement "will maintain the safety of our food supply and ensure that America takes a leadership role in supporting a science- and rules-based trading system."

 

Vilsack met Tuesday in Washington with visiting Chinese Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai.