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BIZCHINA / Top Biz News
US poultry chief urges fair deal for China
By Hu Yinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-08 09:38
A recent US provision that effectively blocks China's poultry exports to
the country leaves an impression that it was "made on political grounds,"
a top American poultry industry representative said on Friday.
Decisions must be made "on the basis of sound science politics really has
no place in it..." James H. Sumner, president of the US Poultry & Egg
Export Council and head of the International Poultry Council, told senior
Chinese quarantine officials in Beijing.
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"China must be given fair consideration," he stressed.
He was commenting on an act passed by the US House of Representatives
earlier this month.
According to the bill, "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".
"The last thing we need is something like this to get in the way of our
mutual progress as long as (Chinese) products reach the standards, nobody
should stand in the way," Sumner said.
He expressed concern that "politicians who don't understand the
principles of free trade" may come to severely undermine the US export
trade.
He made the remarks during an unexpected visit to "show support" to
China's poultry industry, only days before a bilateral food safety summit
between the two countries scheduled in Washington DC.
In an August 31 letter to the US House Agricultural Appropriations
Committee, he explicitly called for "calmer minds and careful voices" to
resolve current disputes.
Sumner brought along with him similar letters from five American
companies, which together represent 75 percent of US chicken production
and 80 percent of its exports.
"This is good evidence that the entire (US poultry) industry supports the
statements I've made," he said, adding that China's "willingness and
commitment to work together" has been highly appreciated.
Earlier, the Chinese poultry industry condemned the US act on the ground
that it "violated basic rules of the World Trade Organization and is
against the principles of fair trade".
China is the world's largest meat producer and the second largest poultry
producer, after the United States.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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