Russia and the United States agreed to restart U.S. poultry supplies to Russia, President Barack Obama said Thursday at a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev following top level talks.
The United States accounted for some 20% of poultry Russia consumed in 2009. The two countries have been in talks on resuming poultry imports after new harsher sanitary requirements came into force from January 1, 2010, effectively banning imports of U.S. poultry.
Russia's chief sanitary official Gennady Onishchenko said in late May that Russia and the United States were close to reaching a solution to resume poultry supplies, halted due to Russia's ban on chlorine-treated products.
Obama said the poultry imports meant "billions of dollars" for U.S. economy, and added that he is grateful to Medvedev and other Russian officials for addressing the issue seriously.
Medvedev is winding up his three-day visit to the United States, where he also visited California's Silicon Valley, and will head to Canada to attend the G8 and G20 summits on June 25-26 and June 26-27 respectively.
WASHINGTON, June 25 (RIA Novosti)
