ARKANSAS (TB&P) — China has announced it will resume poultry imports from the U.S. after a nearly five-year ban.
The stoppage originally occurred in January 2015 due to an outbreak of avian influenza, which led to a Chinese ban on all U.S. poultry and eggs. China is dealing with a serious shortage of protein, in part due to a fatal hog disease that crippled its domestic pork industry.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said lifting the poultry ban would be a welcome relief for American poultry producers.
“The United States welcomes China’s decision to finally lift its unwarranted ban on U.S. poultry and poultry products. This is great news for both America’s farmers and China’s consumers,” Lighthizer said. “China is an important export market for America’s poultry farmers, and we estimate they will now be able to export more than $1 billion worth of poultry and poultry products each year to China. Reopening China to U.S. poultry will create new export opportunities for our poultry farmers and support thousands of workers employed by the U.S. poultry industry.”
Prior to the ban in 2015, American poultry producers exported over $500 million in products to China. U.S. officials said the industry had been free from the avian flu disease since 2017, but it had not resulted in a resumption of trade. The U.S. is the world’s second-largest poultry exporter with global exports of poultry meat and products of $4.3 billion last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
To read more of this story, visit our content partner Talk Business & Politics.