February 24, 2012

 

US, China advance on poultry deal

 

 

The US and China have ironed out key trade differences to allow processed chicken imports from China into the US market, US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Thursday (Feb 23).

 

Recent meetings with Chinese government officials during the February visit of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and Agriculture Minister Han Changfu helped negotiations, Vilsack said, and the USDA is preparing to send a delegation to China in March.

 

"We are clearly seeing progress and my hope is that we can get this thing wrapped up in the near term," Vilsack said at the department's annual outlook forum.

 

China has been after the US for years to approve a plan to allow China to import chicken from the US, process it and then export it back to the US.

 

Eventually, China wants to be able to process its own chicken and sell that into the US. Canada is currently the only country allowed to export chicken to the US.

 

Vilsack said that once China's desire to be able to export processed chicken to the US has been dealt with, he's hopeful the two countries can move on to US concerns like remaining Chinese restrictions on US beef exports.

 

Agriculture Undersecretary Mike Scuse will be leading the US delegation to China in March, a trip he said will be divided between efforts to drum up new trade relationships between US and Chinese companies and negotiations over trade disputes between the countries.

 

Representatives of more than 30 US companies and several state agriculture commissioners will travel with Scuse for the first part of the trip, he said. For the second part, Scuse will be working to resolve US and Chinese differences on chicken trade, China's continued refusal to buy US beef and the lag in the time it takes China to approve genetically modified plants after the US does.

 

After years of frustration over a US failure to allow imports of Chinese-processed chicken, China slapped import duties on US chicken about a year ago. China, at the time, said the duties were justified because subsidised US chicken was being dumped onto the Chinese market at extremely low prices.

 

The duties brought a virtual halt to US chicken exports to China and in December 2011, the US asked the World Trade Organization to settle the dumping dispute.

 

Meanwhile, China has banned US beef since December 2003, when the US first discovered bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in the US beef supply.

 

William Westman, a vice president for the American Meat Institute, said Thursday he is optimistic that Scuse will make headway in getting China to once again import US beef. China is poised to become a major buyer of US beef thanks to the country's rapidly growing middle class, which can afford to consume more meat.