[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 65 (Monday, May 20, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H2647-H2648]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          RUSSIAN POULTRY BAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Deal) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, many of us have lived through some 
very interesting times in the international political atmosphere. I 
think all of us were very pleased, of course, years ago when we saw the 
Berlin Wall collapse and when we saw the Soviet Union literally 
dissolve. And over the years that have passed, one of the things that 
many of us have been encouraged about is the fact that Russia has 
become a new partner with the United States.
  I know personally I was very pleased with the past visit with 
President Putin with our own President Bush and the relationship that 
they developed. I think that is certainly an encouraging sign, 
certainly something that our two nations will benefit from in the short 
term as well as the long term.
  But I am here tonight to talk about a subject that I believe the 
Russian Government must address if they are to lay a foundation for a 
continued good working relationship with our country; and that is a 
result of a ban that was placed by the Russian Government on March 10 
of this year on the import of all American poultry.
  Poultry is somewhat unique in the agricultural scheme of things. It 
is totally unsubsidized. We have debated a farm bill, and it was a 
controversial bill in many respects in which we were attempting to do 
what we could to support production agriculture in this country. Much 
of it did involve subsidies; it involved quotas and allocations of 
production capacity. But the poultry industry stands on its own.
  It is a very successful industry, and it has proven that it can 
compete all around the world. What has happened, though, is that Russia 
with this import ban has placed a tremendous burden on American poultry 
companies. In fact, it is estimated that they are currently losing in 
the neighborhood of $25 million a week. Now, even though the ban has 
been supposedly lifted, as the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) 
referred to, there have been all sorts of artificial barriers that have 
been placed that as a practical matter have made it impossible for us 
to be able to ship any poultry. In fact, the indications are from the 
United States Poultry and Ag Export Council that no United States 
poultry export shipments have been moved since this ban was supposedly 
lifted. And, further, due to the Russian paperwork impediments, at 
least 20,000 metric tons of United States poultry that was shipped 
prior to the ban on March 10 are still sitting in Russian ports 
awaiting being unloaded or disbursed. And it is costing approximately 
$10,000 a day for those shipments to remain there in the Russian ports.
  There is a serious problem. It is one that the United States Poultry 
Industry needs the assistance of the President and his visit to Russia 
to talk with President Putin to stress on him the importance of taking 
affirmative action to remove these impediments.
  Currently there are still bans on some States in the United States, 
namely, North Carolina, Virginia, Maine, and Pennsylvania; and that is 
because of an avian influenza outbreak and they are on the restricted 
list. My State of Georgia, which currently is the largest poultry 
producer in the United States, supplying somewhere in

[[Page H2648]]

the neighborhood of 42 percent of all poultry produced in the United 
States and the exports from my State of Georgia alone are about $300 
million a year.
  It is a tremendous issue economically and one that impacts not only 
poultry but it has a spillover effect because as poultry prices 
continue to decline and supplies continue to build up domestically, it 
begins to affect the beef industry, the pork industry, the turkey 
industry, and, likewise, the grain producers who supply the feed that 
goes into feeding the poultry flocks. So it does have a very 
detrimental effect overall unless Russia is willing to make some 
changes and to live up to their trade agreements.
  They have done that before. I believe it was in 1998 that Russia 
first imposed an embargo on American poultry. And as a result of that, 
it had tremendous economic impacts on the poultry industry in the 
United States. And the industry, even though it is heavily located in 
my State and in other southern States, it is an industry that employs 
people in 38 of our States. And half of the poultry exports of the 
United States are actually going to Russia. So when we see this import 
ban being placed by Russia, we know that it has long-term consequences.
  Now, we also know that Russia wants some things from the 
international community. From the United States they want the repeal of 
the Jackson-Vanick statute. They also want admission into the World 
Trade Organization. All of these are issues that I think we are all 
willing to consider. But we expect them to do so as they approach 
international trade with a fair and even hand, and that is what we are 
asking.

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