India’s import restrictions on chicken legs and some other farm products from the US on fears that “low-intensity” bird flu can affect public health are not in line with multilateral trade rules, a World Trade Organisation panel has ruled.

This means New Delhi will now not be able impose restrictions on imports of farm products, including poultry products, from countries reporting low-intensity bird flu on health grounds which would in turn open the Indian market to low-priced chicken legs from the US.

The US had dragged India to the WTO on the issue in 2012 claiming that the restrictions were based on “unscientific” reasons, which the dispute settlement panel has upheld.

India will now examine if it would challenge the verdict in the Appellate Body, the highest decision making body of the WTO. “We can definitely appeal before the Appellate Body. But in this case it is the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries that will have to take a call as it was their notification that was under challenge. We will consult them,” a Commerce Ministry official told Business Line .

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 in science and was also not supported by World Organisation for Animal Health.

Although India keeps lifting its ban on import of poultry products from the US when the country reports that it is free of avian influenza, it immediately re-imposes it if there is report of outbreak in any part of the country. Because of the uncertainty, US poultry exporters have not been able to export much to India.

The ruling has left the domestic poultry sector worried. It wants the Centre to go to the WTO Appellate Body in appeal against the ruling as it is jittery over the prospects of cheaper US chicken legs getting dumped in the Indian market.

“We want the Government to appeal against this order,” said G Ranjit Reddy, President of the Hyderabad-based Poultry Breeders Association. Poultry breeders across the country are planning to approach the Government seeking its intervention in this regard.

“The WTO ruling will hamper growth of the domestic industry which is still recovering from bird flu and high feed costs,” said MCR Shetty, President, Karnataka Poultry Farmers and Breeders Association.

Shetty said chicken legs are considered a scrap in the US, which it wants to dump in the Indian market at a throw away price. Such dumped chicken legs could potentially occupy about 40 per cent of the Indian market, Shetty said adding that the Government should block the cheaper imports to protect the domestic growers.

About four lakh farmers are engaged in poultry farming and the domestic market size is estimated at around ₹50,000 crore.

Reddy said the poultry industry in the US is highly subsidised. He said the Indian poultry industry is ready to compete with the US provided they export the whole bird to India and not just the chicken legs. The Government should consider some measures to protect the domestic growers, he added.

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