BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil has requested consultations with the European Union at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in a dispute over EU measures affecting the import of salted chicken meat and turkey meat with pepper, the WTO said on Thursday.
Brazil's Foreign Ministry said it hopes the talks will lead to a friendly resolution to what it called "discriminatory sanitary controls for the detection of salmonella" that create "unjustified barriers" to international trade.
The request, which is the first formal step in a dispute at the WTO, was circulated to its members on Thursday,
Brazil claims the application by the EU of salmonella food safety criteria on poultry meat violates the rules of the WTO's Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.
"Brazil considers that there is no technical or scientific evidence to justify the application, by the European Union, of stricter microbiological criteria for the detection of salmonella in salted chicken meat and turkey with pepper, in comparison to fresh poultry meat," Brazil's statement said.