Poultry firms' hopes dim for EU deal

The seventh round of free-trade negotiations between the U.S. and the European Union resumes this week, but experts don't expect the discussions to end successfully for poultry producers any time soon.

United States poultry growers have been shut out of the EU for 17 years. The negotiations involve the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The American Farm Bureau and the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council have been pushing for the EU to allow more agricultural imports as part of a broader deal.

The EU banned poultry imports from the U.S. in 1997 because of chlorine use at processing plants. In American plants, bird carcasses are dipped in a water-chlorine mix to kill bacteria. The EU attempts to control salmonella and campylobacter at the farm level, so treatment at processing plants isn't necessary.

Bacteria survive both techniques, but more so with the European method, said Jim Sumner, president of the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council.

He said he isn't optimistic about an agreement.

"We've participated in many discussions about TTIP in general, and my personal view is if [the U.S. and EU] can't even get together on issues such as poultry, how are they going to resolve the myriad of other issues?" he said. "Another way of looking at it is there will not be an agreement unless agriculture is an integral part of that agreement."

Congress would have to approve any trade deal, and without the support of the agriculture industry, it's unlikely to garner support, Sumner said.

He believes that the EU's chlorine standards are more about politics than food safety. The U.S. proposed four alternative treatments after the ban. They were approved by the European Food Safety Authority, but European member states rejected their use.

"Of course they're all hung up on chlorine although we've explained to them that we are not restrictive to the use of just chlorine," Sumner said. "That seems to still be what they dwell upon."

In 2012, the U.S. exported $4.9 billion worth of poultry to 130 countries -- more than 20 percent of U.S. product by weight. The USA Poultry & Egg Export Council believes that opening trade with Europe would increase that number by 13 percent, or $600 million annually.

In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin banned poultry imports from the U.S., which accounted for about $310 million in lost sales.

David Salmonsen, senior director of congressional relations at the American Farm Bureau, said poultry isn't agriculture's only concern.

The EU bans pork raised with Ractopamine, a feed supplement, and beef raised with hormones to quicken growth -- practices common in the U.S. The EU allows imports of genetically modified crops, but the approval process is lengthy, Salmonsen said.

"A lot of the tariffs over the years have come down. If you still want to regulate trade, you have standards instead," he said. "[The E.U. knows] they have to have agriculture's support to get through our Congress."

Industry advocates have said U.S. producers would come out ahead if trade were freer.

"We are a lower cost producer," Sumner said. "What benefit would it be for the Europeans to ship their product here?"

Business on 10/01/2014

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