There will be no surge of poultry export from China to the US even if the US lifts its ban. However, it is at least possible for Chinese producers to tap the new market if the ban is removed.
Dr. Huo Jianguo, President of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Foodstuffs and Native Produce accused the US ban of being "unfair". He hopes that the issue be raised in high level contacts between China and the US.
China has taken the case to the WTO in April 2009 and petitioned on June 23 to establish a WTO expert panel to investigate the ban.
Mr. Huo told People's Daily Online on June 24 that his guild had always been keeping very close contact and consultations with their US counterparts which always promised to help to remove the ban. "But we have not seen any substantial progress on that", said Huo.
He believes that the pressure from the industry is one of the most important reasons for the ban.
Another reason lies in the US House of Representative which does not have idea of the situation, he thinks.
In that case, he thinks the only way to solve the problem is to urge both the US guilds and senior US officials to recognize the seriousness of the problem and address that as early as possible.
China and the US agreed to resume the poultry trade in 2004. However, the US has never honored its commitments after China opened its market to the US.
According to China's statistics, in 2008, China imported 799,000 tons of chicken, which was worth more than 1 billion USD. The imports from the US reached 580,000 tons, valued 780 million USD. That means 72.6 percent of China's chicken imports were from the US.
By People's Daily Online
|