Russia, US to solve dispute over poultry imports

Russia and the United States will hold talks on January 17 in Moscow to solve a dispute over U.S. poultry imports, a top Russian official said on Sunday, according to Reuters.
Russia blocked U.S. poultry imports beginning January 1 with a law prohibiting chlorine as an anti-microbial treatment in poultry production.
Russia's chief sanitary official Gennady Onishchenko reportedly said that he hoped a compromise would be found at talks in Moscow, which he agreed to hold after telephone talks with James Miller, the USDA's undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services.
The United States supplies more than one-sixth of Russian poultry consumption, or 600,000 metric tons, Onishchenko said, adding that Washington knew about Russian plans to proceed with new regulations since 1994.
The January 17 talks will involve shipments of U.S. poultry, which is already en route to Russian ports on the Baltic Sea. U.S. officials have said there might be some 30,000 metric tons of poultry already en route to Russia.