EU will probably lift U.S. poultry ban - Verheugen
LJUBLJANA, May 6 (Reuters) - The European Union will probably lift its 11-year-old ban on imports of U.S. poultry, Enterprise and Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said on Tuesday.
"The Commission will find a solution and the only solution is to lift the ban," Verheugen said ahead of a Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) meeting in Brussels on May 13.
The EU banned imports of U.S. poultry in April 1997 because U.S. poultry producers use a low-concentration chlorine wash to reduce harmful pathogens, a practice not permitted by the EU food safety regime.
Verheugen told a news conference the ban has stayed in force so long due to lack of clear political will, which appeared to corroborate Washington's long-standing claim that the ban was rooted in politics and not in scientific facts.
"The reason why there has been no solution so far is that there was a clear lack of political guidance. ... Now there is a strong political will to solve this issue," he said during a one-day visit to Slovenia.
He declined to say when the ban would be lifted but said that, "In November I made a clear commitment the issue will be solved ahead of the EU-US summit here in Slovenia (in June)."
Poultry is one of the 31 issues disputed by the EU and the United States. Verheugen said earlier that failure to resolve the poultry spat could jeopardize attempts to reach consensus on wider issues like health care, financial services, patents, cosmetics and biofuels. (Reporting by Manca Ulcar in Ljubljana; edited by Myra MacDonald)
