Arecent U.S. provision that effectively blocks China's poultry exports to thecountry leaves an impression that it was \"made on political grounds，\" a topAmerican poultry industry representative said recently，

Decisions must be made \"on the basis of sound science politics really has no placein it...\" James H. Sumner， president oftbe U.S. Poultry Egg Export Council and headof the International Poultry Council， told senior Chinese quarantine officials in Beijing.

\"China must be given fair consideration，\" he stressed. He was commenting on an actpassed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month.

According to the bill， \"none of the funds made available in this Act may be used toestablish or implement a rule allowing poultry products to be imported into the UnitedStates from the People's Republic of China.\"

\"The last thing we need is something like this to get in the way of our mutualprogress as long as (Chinese) products reach the standards， nobody should stand in theway，\" Sumner said.

He expressed concern that \"politicians who don't understand the principles of freetrade\" mav come to severely undermine the US export trade.Sumner brought along with him similar letters from five Americancompanies， which together represent 75% of US chicken productionand 80% of its exports.

\"This is good evidence that the entire (U.S. poultry) industrysupports the statements I've made，\" he said， adding that China's\"willingness and commitment to work together\" has beerhighly appreciated.

Eadier， the Chinese poultry industry condennedthe U.S. act on the ground that it \"violated basicrules of the World Trade Organization and isagainst the principles of fair trade.\"

China is the world's largest meat producer and thesecond largest poultry producer， after the United States.