US Urges Tanzania to Lift Ban on Chicken
TANZANIA - Tanzania has maintained a hardline position on its ban on imports of chicken and poultry products from the US, which it imposed in 2006, and now Washington is pushing discussions on the matter to the regional level, demanding that Dar give a justification for the ban through a process that is above board.According to The EastAfrican, the US says Tanzania’s reasons for the ban should be consistent with Word Trade Organisation requirements.
But the EAC’s (East African Community) Sectoral Council of Ministers Of Trade, Industry, Finance And Investment (SCTIFI), meeting in Arusha early last month, resolved that the US pursue the matter on a bilateral basis with the concerned partner states.
Tanzania has used the ban to protect its poultry farmers from what it sees as unfair competition posed by cheap imports of chicken from the US, whose farmers are supported by the government through subsidies.