India will ask the U.S. to drop its plans for $450 million in penalties for non-compliance on a World Trade Organization ruling on poultry imports. Bloomberg reports the Minister of Commerce and Industry from India will discuss the issue with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Frohman during a phone call this week. Pro Farmer’s First Thing Today said the penalty is in response to a dispute regarding poultry imports from the U.S., which asked the WTO dispute settlement body to allow $450 million in annual retaliatory trade measures against India. The retaliatory measures would continue against India until they come into compliance with a 2015 WTO ruling to lift the ban on poultry. The ban was put in place several years ago over concerns about avian influenza possibly coming into India. The U.S. argued before the WTO that America hadn’t had an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza since 2004, while India had 90 such outbreaks between 2004 and 2014.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.