Trade negotiators from the United States and European Union have agreed on a number of steps to ease trade and investment barriers between the two regions, including a lifting of the EU’s ban on imports of U.S. poultry products. Following the second meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council in Brussels on Tuesday, the council said the European Commission will urge its member government to lift the ban on imports of U.S. fresh and frozen chicken and turkey meat. The EU has banned the products since 1997, charging chlorinated water U.S. producers use as an anti-microbial agent to wash the meat is potentially carcinogenic. Negotiators from the U.S. have seen the lifting of the ban as a test of the TEC’s ability to resolve other trade issues with the EU. The TEC said that the European Commission will propose changes to EU regulations that will allow the importation of poultry meat processed using alternative anti-microbial treatments, as well as the use of such treatments in EU member states in the production of poultry meat for consumption in the EU. It also said the Commission has expressed its determination to find an agreed solution to the ban, working with member states and the European Parliament, before the next TEC meeting planned for this fall. Also, the TEC statement said it will submit to the EU-U.S. Summit an Open Investment Statement which affirms its commitment to promoting open investment policies in the two regions and to work together to oppose protectionism abroad. The group said the EC will propose a positive decision on the equivalence of U.S. accounting standards to EU rules in the course of 2008.
Journal of Commerce
