WTO Rejects Indian Restrictions on U.S. Poultry Imports

A World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel has found that
a series of food safety restrictions imposed by the Indian government on
imports of U.S. poultry products was based on the inaccurate proposition
that U.S. poultry was more likely to carry bird flu. India failed to distinguish
between high-pathogenic bird flu that had not been found in the United
States since 2004 and a low-pathogenic strain that had appeared in the
country, the WTO panel found, so it rejected the Agreement on Sanitary and
Phytosanitary Measures. The United States initially challenged the import
restriction in 2012 following complaints from chicken farmers accusing the
Indian government of unfairly shielding its poultry producers from foreign
competition. India has 60 days to challenge the panel’s findings, and if it does,
the WTO Appellate Body will have 90 days to issue a report on the dispute.

Issue 541