Following the White House announcement yesterday that bilateral negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union will be launched, the National Chicken Council, National Turkey Federation, USA Poultry & Egg Export Council and U.S. Poultry & Egg Association jointly expressed strong support for the new international trade initiative.

"U.S. Trade Ambassador Ron Kirk and the other officials at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) have not only worked long and diligently to reach this point, but USTR also listened-to and accepted recommendations that agriculture and unwarranted non-tariff barriers, especially non-science based sanitary and phytosanitary provisions, be an important part of the negotiations and that any final trade agreement successfully address these issues," the groups said. 

"The EU has many unwarranted non-tariff trade barriers that severely limit or prohibit the export of certain U.S. agricultural products to the EU. Chief among the issues is the EU's prohibition against pathogen-reduction treatments for poultry. The result of this non-science based action is that the United States has not been able to export poultry to the EU since 1997. When TTIP negotiations are successfully concluded, U.S. poultry producers look forward to marketing over $500 million of products to the EU on an annual basis."

Source: National Chicken Council