Russia and the United States have begun talks aimed at resolving problems on the sale of poultry, following Russia's decision to ban the import of poultry from the United States beginning Jan. 1, 2010.
Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov says the 600,000-tonne U.S. quota has not been cancelled. However, he also points out that the European Union has not processed poultry with chlorine "and has not imported or exported such products for five years." Zubkov said Russia has worked with the EU for years on the subject "and we are now synchronizing our standards with the EU. It's not just our initiative." He added that Russian officials believe that chlorine-processed poultry is bad for people's health.
Zubkov recalled that the decision to ban poultry from the United States was made back in June 2008. "However, we knew that it would be difficult to switch to new processing methods in 2009 and allowed more time to switch to more modern and safer standards," he said.
Zubkov said Russian enterprises have switched to the new processing methods. "However, the United States did not do anything in 2009, and the ban on chlorine-processed poultry supplies became effective on Jan. 1," he said.
Zubkov said he is hoping the United States will recognize the Russian safety standards. "In that case they can bring the necessary amount of poultry and there will be no problems," he said.
