India has decided to challenge a ruling by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against a ban it imposed on imports of chicken legs and other farm products from the US.
India had banned these imports on fears that they could result in spread of the bird flu. The WTO’s dispute settlement body, ruling on a petition filed by the US, found the restrictions violative of global trade rules.
The Commerce Ministry, following discussions with the Department of Animal Husbandry (which had notified the ban), has concluded that there is enough ground to appeal against the WTO dispute body ruling, a Government official told
“We will appeal against the panel ruling at the WTO Appellate Body soon and have already asked our lawyers to work on it,” the official said.
In October, a WTO panel ruled that India’s import curbs on farm products, including poultry, from the US – on fears that “low-intensity” bird flu can affect public health – were not in line with multilateral trade rules.
It ruled that the restrictions were not based on scientific principles and maintained without sufficient scientific evidence.
The ruling has implications for the domestic poultry sector as the Union Government can no longer restrict import of cheap chicken legs from the US on the basis of reports of low-intensity bird flu in that country.
The poultry industry had urged the Government to appeal against the rule as removing the ban would hit farmers, still recovering from the effects of bird flu.
“We believe that we can prove that our fears of low pathogenic strains of bird are valid. Our lawyers are going through the details of the ruling and we will prepare a strong case,” the official said.
The US had argued that the ban imposed by India on import of poultry products from countries’ reporting outbreaks of low pathogenic notifiable avian influenza has no basis scientifically and also not supported by World Organisation for Animal Health.