Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 35 • 14th October 2009

US Challenges EU Restrictions on Poultry Imports

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The United States has asked the WTO to set up a panel to determine whether European restrictions on imports of US poultry products violate the EU’s commitments at the global trade body, the office of the US Trade Representative announced last week. Brussels - citing food safety concerns - has long refused to accept shipments of poultry products treated with certain chemicals that are widely used in the US.

Slaughterhouses routinely rinse their meat products to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination. European regulations dictate that any meat that is sold within the EU - regardless of where the meat came from - can only be rinsed with water or an approved substance.

Slaughterhouses in the United States routinely use cleansing methods known as pathogen reduction treatments (PRTs), which the EU banned in 1997. When that regulation was imposed, it stopped imports of “virtually all US poultry,” according to a statement from the office of the USTR.

In 2002, Washington appealed to Brussels to accept four PRTs - chlorine dioxide, acidified sodium chlorite, trisodium phosphate, and peroxyacids - that had already been approved by US regulators. But European agriculture ministers rejected that request in December of last year, leaving the regulation unchanged.

“This rule is part of wider EU legislation ensuring a high level of safety throughout the food chain, from farm to fork,” the European Trade Commission said in a statement on Thursday. “We will defend our food safety legislation, which does not discriminate against imported products,” commission spokesman Lutz Guellner added.

But Washington says food safety concerns are misplaced. “The US poultry subject to the EU ban is safe,” said Nefeterius McPherson, a USTR spokeswoman. “There is no scientific evidence that the use of pathogen reduction treatments pose any health risk to consumers,” she added.

The WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body will consider Washington’s request for the establishment of a panel at its meeting on 23 October.

ICTSD reporting.