December 3, 2009

US slow in resuming China poultry imports

The US has yet to resume the importation of poultry from China due to red tape, leading China to continue its World Trade Organisation challenge against the US.

The USDA requires some time to approve China poultry imports, while President Obama's September decision to impose safeguard tariffs on imports of Chinese tires have kept the WTO challenge alive.

The USDA needs to take a series of steps before allowing imports, including revisiting processing plants in China.

China is unlikely to close its WTO case unless it sees concrete results in its poultry shipments to the US, according to a source.

So far, the panel for the WTO case has been formed and both countries have filed briefs, crushing the US poultry industry's initial hopes that the case could be delayed.