EU Likely to Lift 11-year Poultry Ban

BRUSSELS, Belgium-(Reuters)--The European Union is likely to lift its 11-year ban on U.S. poultry imports, the EU's Enterprise and Industry Commissioner said on Tuesday.

"The Commission will find a solution and the only solution is to lift the ban," Guenter Verheugen said.

The renewed focus on the EU's ban comes as the Transatlantic Economic Council prepares to meet in Brussels next week to discuss a variety of trade issues.

U.S. officials have long said that the ban was politically motivated, despite the EU's insistence that the move was based in science. The EU banned imports of U.S. poultry on account of U.S. processors' use of chlorine in processing.

"The real world evidence is that billions of people around the world have consumed wholesome, safe U.S. poultry for decades without any harmful effects from the theoretical risks raised by the EU," top U.S. poultry officials Bill Roenigk of the National Chicken Council and Joel Brandenberger of the National Turkey Federation wrote in a statement on U.S.-EU poultry trade.

Poultry is only one of about 30 unresolved trade issues between the United States and the European Union, though some believe that if poultry trade is not resolved, discussion of other issues could be compromised.