DeLauro: Illegally Smuggled Chinese Chicken Proof U.S. Government Cannot Ensure Safety of Poultry Imports
DeLauro: Illegally Smuggled Chinese Chicken Proof U.S. Government Cannot Ensure Safety of Poultry Imports
- Michigan raid finds 2,000 pounds of illegal poultry imports -
- Reacting to news that 2,000 pounds of imported poultry from China was illegally smuggled into Michigan this week, Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3) today said this is further proof that the U.S. Government cannot ensure the safety of imports from China. On May 24, a rule went into effect allowing U.S. poultry to be sent to China for processing and then returned to the U.S for sale, despite existing safeguards against products from countries with avian flu. According to Michigan officials, the frozen chicken imports found in a Detroit-area warehouse this week came from areas affected by bird flu or H5N1.
"The sheer volume and the ease in which this amount of Chinese poultry was illegally smuggled into this country is proof that the U.S. Government cannot ensure the safety of the imports the agency recently allowed in our borders," said DeLauro. "Strong concerns about the dangers of allowing poultry imports from China - the lenient safety regulations at production facilities, the threat of a deadly disease running rampant in this country - should have prevented this rule from moving forward. With 2,000 pounds of illegally smuggled imports already in our border and possibly more that has yet to be recovered, I urge the Administration to backtrack from this dangerous policy."
DeLauro inserted language into the Fiscal Year 2007 Agriculture Appropriations bill that would restrict funding under the bill from being used to implement a rule that allows imports of processed poultry and poultry products from the People's Republic of China.
The H5N1 virus has spread rapidly across Asia, affecting mainly chickens. Though the virus has not yet mutated to a human strain, 229 human infections of H5N1 and 131 deaths have been reported since 2003.
DeLauro is the ranking member of the House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee, with jurisdiction and oversight responsibilities of the USDA.
http://www.house.gov/delauro/press/2006/July/chinese_chicken_7_14_06.html