China Lifts Ban on American Poultry
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - China lifted its ban on American poultry products which reopens an export market worth $1 billion, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Thursday.
"The United States welcomes China's decision to finally lift its unwarranted ban on US poultry and poultry products", Lighthizer said in a statement.
American farmers, he added, will now be able to export more than $1 billion worth of poultry and poultry products to China each year.
China imposed a ban on all US poultry in January 2015 after an avian influenza outbreak in December 2014. The Office of the US Trade Representative noted that the Chinese ban on US poultry imports persisted even though the United States has been free of the disease since August 2017.
Earlier in October, China and the US reached consensus on conditions of mutual imports of poultry and agreed to lift a ban on exports of the US poultry to the Asian country.
The United States is the world's second largest poultry exporter after Brazil, with global exports of poultry meat and products of $4.3 billion last year. Prior to the ban, US poultry exports to China stood at over $500 million in 2013.
While the ban on US poultry has been lifted, the trade war between the US and China remains, with the two countries unable to agree on the rolling back of tit-for-tat tariffs that are integral for them to come to a deal.
- Source : Sputnik News
