US fails to persuade Ukraine to lift poultry ban
Date: 25-Mar-02
Country: UKRAINE
Ukraine banned U.S. poultry imports in February because of the alleged use of antibiotics by some U.S. farmers - a practice that is banned in ex-Soviet Ukraine. The delegation arrived in Kiev last week after holding similar talks in Russia.
"Our laws ban antibiotics in fodder. We told our U.S. counterparts that talks on resuming imports could only start when the United States stops using such antibiotics," said Petro Verbytsky, head of Ukraine's Veterinary Inspectorate.
"We have not heard an answer from the U.S. delegation about the Ukrainian proposal," Verbytsky told a news conference after the delegation held talks with Ukraine's Foreign Ministry, farm ministry and cabinet officials.
"This is only the first meeting and talks will continue."
He said domestic producers could easily fill the gap left by missing U.S. imports.Ukraine imported about 72,000 tonnes of meat last year, including about 69,000 tonnes of poultry meat, mostly from the United States, government data showed.
Verbytsky said the use of antibiotics was not the only problem with U.S. exports.
"Besides antibiotics we also plan to discuss another problem - the use of genetically modified plants, for example soyabeans and maize, as fodder," he said.
The U.S. delegation had made little ground in talks with Russia, which banned U.S. chicken early this month over approval problems and salmonella fears.
U.S. producers deny their chicken is unsafe and have lobbied hard to have the ban lifted.
Last year Russia imported 1.36 million tonnes of poultry meat, including around one million tonnes from the United States.
