Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer are both pleased that China lifted it’s “unwarranted ban” on U.S. poultry imports.
“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 each year to China.”
He says reopening China to U.S. poultry will also support thousands of workers employed by the U.S. poultry industry. Perdue says, “America’s producers are the most productive in the world and it’s critical they can sell to consumers in other parts of the world.”
China had banned all U.S. poultry imports since January of 2015 because of an avian influenza outbreak, even though the U.S. has been free of the disease since August of 2017.
The U.S. had exported more than $500 million worth of poultry products to China in 2013.
The United States is the world’s second-largest poultry exporter, with global exports of poultry meat and products totaling $4.3 billion last year.
