China, a major market for U.S. poultry exporters, has become the latest in a string of countries to ban U.S. poultry products due to an outbreak of high-pathogenic avian influenza in Oregon and Washington state. China's Ministry of Agriculture and General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine imposed the restriction effective Jan. 8, according to a Jan. 12 press release from the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC). The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Jan. 12 also added China to the list of countries to which U.S. poultry producers are no longer eligible to ship as a result of the outbreak. USAPEEC President Jim Sumner said in the statement that "there's absolutely no justification for China to take such a drastic action," and emphasized that the outbreaks in Oregon and Washington were "isolated and remote incidents are hundreds if not thousands of miles away from major poultry and egg production areas." "Most all of our other trading partners have taken some sort of regionalized approach, and have limited their restrictions to the state or, in some cases, to the county," he said. "We would have expected China to do the same."
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