In July, the United States and Russia will continue negotiations on poultry trade

Introduction: Washington, July 2 (Reuters) - U.S and Russian officials are discussing how to solve the U.S poultry safety issues of concern to Russia, a USDA spokeswoman said, in order to find ways to maintain the U.S poultry export trade with Russia USDA spokeswoman Alisa Harrison said Tuesday that U.S agricultural officials hope that Russia will continue to accept U.S poultry shipments in the weeks before August 1 Russia had set the day as a deadline for the United States to issue a new safety certificate for its chicken and Turkey exports U.S officials failed to meet their goal of reaching an agreement with Russia on certificates within last week Russian agriculture minister gordyev said in Moscow that negotiations between the two countries on the future poultry trade worth 640 million US dollars will continue until August 1 If no agreement can be reached at that time, Russia will implement the trade ban again Russia has expressed concerns about Salmonella contamination of poultry in the United States and other safety standards for the poultry industry in the United States For this reason, Russia imposed an import ban on poultry meat from March 20 to April 15 this year "We firmly believe that both sides want to open up a way for trade to continue smoothly, and we can solve the final technical problem related to health certificates," Harrison told Reuters If an agreement is not reached by the end of this week, exporters may stop shipping goods, which will take about three weeks to reach Russia, an industry official said "If the goods can't leave before the end of this week, it's hard to guarantee that they will arrive in St Petersburg before August 1." Richard Lobb, spokesman for the national chicken Council (NCC), an American poultry group, said On Monday, U.S Undersecretary of agriculture J.B Penn held talks with Russian agriculture minister gordeyev on poultry trade between the two countries Sergei Strogoff, an expert at the Ministry of agriculture at the Russian Embassy in the United States, said pen had taken a "very reasonable step" in the talks But he added, "it's hard for even a very intelligent and rational person to solve all problems through one day's negotiation." Strogoff said some "important issues" have yet to be addressed, including concerns about Salmonella contamination in poultry in the United States, the use of chlorine in washing chicken carcasses, and biotechnology production However, Strogoff also acknowledged that Russia "is interested in importing poultry products from other countries" because its producers "are not yet able to meet the demand." We can only produce one third of the total demand " There are signs that Russia will impose higher tariffs on imported poultry to protect its domestic poultry industry, which will further complicate the US Russian poultry trade The poultry trade friction between the United States and Russia has directly led to an increase in the supply of low-cost chicken in the United States The price of 1 / 4 chicken legs sold in supermarkets has dropped to 39 cents per pound from 69 cents per pound before March this year.