The Upside of Chlorine Chicken

Over here in Germany, the conventional wisdom holds that the United States could be closer friends with the United States of Europe (EU) if it would only drop its attachment to chlorine chicken. It all begins with the drawn out negotiations and discussions of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the United States and the EU. Germany already has many such agreements in effect with other nations, such as Japan and Switzerland. Because of that, Germans are able to save money when buying a Japanese car because they need pay no import duties.

The Germans love to buy quality goods at a bargain price. But the idea of free trade—which makes that possible—is nevertheless repellent to many because it is connected to global competition.

With that contradiction in mind, Germans still choose the least expensive product on the shelf. People aren’t stupid, you know. But when it comes to the TTIP, their attitudes change because it isn’t always about money and competition; it’s also about health. More precisely, when it comes to groceries, it’s also about standards that must be met before a product may be sold for consumption.

Now we finally come to the chlorine chicken the U.S. wants us to buy after we have a free trade agreement. American chickens aren’t stuffed with antibiotics in order to control harmful bacteria, as they are here in Germany. That’s strictly forbidden in the United States. For that purpose, American chickens are given a chlorine bath after they’ve been slaughtered, a procedure many in Germany think makes them “yucky.”

Chancellor Merkel thinks it’s especially “yucky,” says so publicly, and has promised, “There will be no chlorine chickens imported from the United States. That’s been my position for years and will remain my position in the future.” Now, I think that’s a classy announcement worth thinking about: If the most important product with the highest “yuck” factor could be dropped from the list of forbidden imports from America, maybe most of the U.S.-EU free trade agreement would have a chance with the Germans. That little chlorine chicken could turn out to be the savior of the free trade agreement. If the EU rejects the agreement lock, stock and barrel because of it, then we would have to be truly stupid.