Commission to lift ban on US poultrymeat imports

The European Commission is poised to lift a decade-old ban on imports of US poultrymeat as a sign that it is serious about improving EU-US commercial relations.

The ban will be lifted despite complaints from EU farmers, who must comply with stricter hygiene controls, that the relaxation will put them at a competitive disadvantage.

The 1997 EU ban on poultry treated with anti- microbial agents effectively halted imports of poultry from the US. But European farmers fear that the Commission will lift the ban without pushing for tougher standards on US farms.

Commission officials say that the ban will be lifted by the next meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) scheduled for June.

The TEC was set up last year with the aim of removing barriers to trade and investment between the EU and US and easing regulatory burdens.

Günter Verheugen, the commissioner for enterprise, is the European head of the TEC. He met his US counterpart, Daniel Price, deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, in Davos last month, and the pair discussed the poultrymeat ban.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab last month described the issue as a "litmus test" for the TEC. The EU has been using the TEC to get the US to recognise international financial reporting standards, which have been adopted in Europe. The EU is now coming under pressure from the US to deliver on what the US was demanding.

Petra Erler, Verheugen’s head of cabinet, said that Commission President José Manuel Barroso had made "a clear political commitment" to lift restrictions on the antimicrobial agents, which are used to rid poultry of salmonella.

The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) ruled in 2005 that the treatment did not pose a danger to consumers’ health, but has yet to rule on the environmental effects of antimicrobial agents. A spokesman for EFSA said that the agency would be adopting its opinion in March.

Vincent Cordonnier, a policy adviser at Copa-Cogeca, the European farmers’ federation, said that until EFSA issues its opinion, the lifting of the ban should not be considered a done deal.

"Our fear at the moment is that we’re just talking about allowing this treatment of meat without talking about controls on farms," he said. Controls on US farms, he said, were much laxer than in the EU.

"We consider here in the EU that to fight salmonella you need a holistic approach. It’s not just about having a chlorine treatment at slaughterhouse stage. You need controls on farms. We have very tight regulation here that doesn’t exist in the US."

Scrapping the ban, Cordonnier said, would open the way to 16,000-17,000 tonnes of US poultry imports per year, quotas set during the 2004 enlargement of the EU.

The figures appear insignificant when placed in the context of the 8.5 million tonnes of poultry meat consumed in the EU each year. But, said Cordonnier, even a small 1-2% increase in supplies could lead to reduced prices on the EU market.

The European Commission is poised to lift a decade-old ban on imports of US poultrymeat as a sign that it is serious about improving EU-US commercial relations.