China will lift a ban on U.S. pork and live hogs imposed last spring on concerns over the H1N1 virus, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Thursday following bilateral talks in Beijing.

"China's intent to remove its H1N1-related ban on U.S. pork marks an important step forward in cooperation between the countries on agriculture issues," Vilsack said in a statement.

The U.S. Agriculture Department will soon begin a review of China's food safety laws and poultry plants with an eye to allowing imports of Chinese poultry products, Vilsack told Reuters on Thursday. The poultry issue has been another trade conflict between the two countries.

Kirk added that Washington "expects China to base its opening on science and internationally agreed standards."

Last year, China was the U.S. pork industry's fastest growing market, accounting for $560 million in U.S. pork exports. (By comparison, the industry's largest export market in value terms, Japan, accounted for $1.55 billion in pork exports in 2008.) China imposed H1N1 restrictions in May, grinding U.S. pork exports there to a halt.

"Being effectively shut out of China for nearly six months has been a severe blow to the U.S. pork industry, and we are extremely anxious to resume exports to China," U.S. Meat Export Federation spokesman Joe Schuele told Meatingplace. "But it's very important that we get more details on the terms and conditions under which China plans to reopen the market. Until then, it's a bit premature to try to assess the impact."

J.P. Morgan analyst Ken Goldman noted that U.S. pork exports to China in 2008 got a jolt from the Olympic Games held in Beijing, adding that 2007 would represent a more normal performance. That year 7 percent of U.S. pork exports were shipped to China, he wrote in a note to investors.

"As a percent of total U.S. pork production, (exports to) China represented about 1 percent in 2007, so we are not forecasting massive upswings in pork prices as a result of this news," Goldman wrote. "But a 1 percent increase in exports is enough to at least offset the 1 percent [year-on-year] increase of late in live hog weights."

Hog futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange rose on the news in morning trade.

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