Ukraine adopts law prohibiting US poultry

This law will, consequently, close the legal channel through which most US poultry products were imported, says a Foreign Agricultural Service report.

Further processors in the country’s Free Economic Zones imported 75% of US poultry, as the Zones allowed importers to circumvent Ukraine’s prohibitively high import duty. The report goes on to say that the remaining 25% of US poultry has been imported through “unofficial” channels, but a new government programme to stop “contraband” will impact those imports as well.

Ukraine is looking to become a member of the World Trade Organization in 2008, which would mean that imports would be subject to WTO regulations. The reported stated that WTO accession would reduce duty rates to a non-prohibitive level.

Ukraine was a US$70 million market for US poultry in 2007.