US-Russia trade talks end in stalemate

Two days of trade negotiations between the United States and Russia have ended without a resolution to the dispute over the use of chlorinated water in poultry processing, according to Reuters news agency. The talks also failed to resolve a dispute over antibiotic residues that led Russia to block imports from nearly all U.S. pork processing plants.
Russia barred poultry imports from the United States because U.S. processers wash the meat with chlorinated water to remove pathogens. Russia says that the chlorine residues that remain on poultry after this process is too high to conform with its food standards. Before the ban, Russia had become the United States’ largest export market for poultry, with an annual value of approximately $800M.
Russia is also the fifth largest export market for U.S. pork, according to Reuters. Hog futures fell on January 21 as traders in Chicago responded to the news of stalled negotiations.
Russian importers are negotiating with other countries to replace its U.S. poultry imports. Thailand “said it was interested in starting large-scale supplies of poultry imports to Russia and guaranteed full observation of Russian veterinary and sanitary rules," the Russian health agency Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement.
The U.S. and Russian governments said they will continue to discuss the import disputes, Reuters reported.