The most notable trade barrier [between the US and Europe] has been the European ban on chlorine-bathed poultry. U.S. poultry producers frequently rely on a tasty chlorine rinse to kill the pathogens that, thanks to unsanitary slaughterhouse standards, regularly pervade our chicken. The EU — and until recently, Russia — has labeled such poultry unfit to eat, resulting in the American poultry industry losing an estimated $300 million in potential sales. American poultry producers have been outraged by this “injustice” for years, and earlier this year they urged the World Trade Organization to pursue legal action against the EU for losses incurred by the ban. The EU seems unfazed; it has no plans whatsoever to change the policy, nor its ban on beef treated with hormones.

In fact, things seem poised to get even tougher for the American factory farmer with dreams of European expansion. The new Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner for the EU, John Dalli, promised in recent months to pursue more stringent animal welfare labeling for meat products sold in member nations.