Fair or fowl? Malaysia struggles to stomach its US trade pact
Local chefs fume over ‘lousy’ US poultry flooding the market, as critics call the trade agreement hastily reached and unfairly lopsided
Janice, a Kuala Lumpur-based food entrepreneur and chef, is in a foul mood as she laments the inferior quality and taste of US-produced chicken and eggs. Yet she concedes that she may have to stomach this unwelcome change in the local poultry market, at least for now.
“Their beef is good, but their poultry is not hygienic,” said Janice, 41, who asked to be identified only by a pseudonym for fear of reprisals against her business. “We can eat our eggs raw. They cannot do the same.”
For the US poultry lobby, which represents large agribusiness producers that rear nearly half a billion birds each year, the issue is a numbers game. It has pushed hard for American chicken meat to be sold to Washington’s trade partners, even as it seeks curbs on poultry imports to protect domestic farmers.
