GENEVA - The European Union has submitted a complaint against the United States at the World Trade Organisation over U.S. restrictions on poultry imports, trade officials said on Thursday.
A spokesman at the U.S. trade mission in Geneva confirmed that Washington had received the EU complaint, lodged with the Geneva-based world trade body on Tuesday. Responses in similar cases normally took about 10 days, he added but gave no details.
Under WTO rules, trade officials said the European Union and the United States now have 60 days to hold bilateral talks to try to settle the problem.
The European Union has already halted U.S. poultry shipments to European destinations since April 1 because it says the U.S. industry uses chlorine to kill bacteria in chicken carcasses.
Washington too has blocked European poultry and poultry products on health grounds.
In April, United States and European Union officials averted a potentially-costly transatlantic trade war by partially settling a long fight over meat import regulations.
But that deal failed to resolve sharp disagreements in poultry issues, with Washington announcing that about $50 million worth of U.S. poultry exports to Europe would remain halted against some $1 million worth of European poultry products blocked by the United States.
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