Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 7/28/09

Major U.S. meat companies on Tuesday urged Congress to remove barriers to Chinese poultry imports to avert a potential retaliation on U.S. meat exports to China, according to a report by Reuters.

A coalition of companies including Tyson Foods, JBS S.A., Cargill, Seaboard, Sanderson Farms, Pilgrim's Pride, Smithfield Foods and Hormel Foods testified to a House committee that it is unfair to single out China when the United States offers access to any of the other 152 countries that are members of the World Trade Organization.

"We will not be able to avoid a serious trade confrontation with China if Congress does not reconsider" the ban, trade lawyer Kevin Brosch reportedly said, representing the coalition in a statement prepared for the agriculture appropriations subcommittee.

China has filed a WTO complaint concerning the ban, while trade groups have reported that Chinese importers already have begun to block shipments of U.S. chicken in retaliation. 

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