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Franken questions Chinese restrictions on poultry, pork

A U.S. Senator from Minnesota has written a letter to USDA trade officials calling for an end to China’s questionable restrictions on U.S. poultry and pork products.

Al Franken says China seems to be using unfair trading tactics to benefit its agricultural sector.

“The Chinese have been trying to keep our poultry and pork out of China, I guess to help their producers.  But that doesn’t help their consumers and there is a market there for (the U.S.), especially for things like gizzards, hearts and necks that there’s not a strong market for here in the U.S.”

Franken questions the scientific basis of current sanitary and phytosanitary standards being used by China to block all U.S. poultry and certain U.S. pork exports.

“Our poultry producers want to get into that (market) and have been in it before, and then when avian flu came the Chinese used it-whether it was an excuse or not you can make that judgment-but there’s no reason not to be taking our poultry in now.”

Franken says high level trade negotiations continue and both U.S. producers and Chinese consumers would be well-served by lifting these restrictions.