Chicken Tax Imminent?

Local lawmakers in the eastern Sverdlovsk region have ruffled the feathers of American diplomats by threatening to slap a 50 percent import duty on U.S. chicken.

The move recalls a Russian- American poultry flap last year that got so serious it involved the presidents of both countries.

The lower house of the Sverdlovsk legislature approved a 50 percent chicken tax Tuesday. The measure is now before the upper house.

The U.S. Consulate issued a statement deploring the move.

Russia is a huge and increasingly profitable market for American chicken producers, who sold $607 million worth of poultry in the country last year.