A recent US act that blocks China's poultry exports to the US
market smacks of "trade protectionism" and will affect 20 million
Chinese farmers, according to the poultry industry.
The US House of Representatives earlier this month passed the
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008. It stipulates that "none
of the funds made available in this Act may be used to establish or
implement a rule allowing poultry products to be imported into the
United States from the People's Republic of China."
Without permits from certain rules, Chinese poultry products
could have no access to the US market.
"The act not only undermines the joint efforts by the Chinese
and US governments in the past three years to boost meat trade, but
also reflects discrimination against the Chinese poultry industry,"
the poultry sub-chamber of the China Chamber of Commerce of Import
and Export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-products
told China Daily yesterday.
China is the largest meat producer in the world and the second
largest poultry producer after the United States.
The Chinese poultry industry said it "strongly opposes" the act
as it "violated basic rules of the World Trade Organization and is
against the principles of fair trade".
The government has made great concessions in meat trade since it
joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. It promised to remove
tariffs on meat by 2010 and has completely opened its meat market
to international players.
US poultry exports to China have increased remarkably since
then.
From 2001 to July 2007, broiler exports to China totaled 2.71
million tons, accounting for some 78 percent of China's total
imports.
However, the poultry sub-chamber said, the United States has not
opened its market to Chinese poultry products even after a
three-year investigation and evaluation.
(China Daily August 22, 2007)
