By MEGGIE I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last week, U.S. Trade Rep. Ron Kirk and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that China plans to lift its ban on U.S. pork and live swine imports, squelching further misunderstanding of an H1N1 – swine connection.

“This is good news for U.S. pork producers, who have been suffering through an economic crisis for the past two years,” said National Pork Producers’ Council President Don Butler. “China is, by far, the largest potential money-making opportunity for the U.S. pork industry.”

In 2008, China was the U.S. pork industry’s fastest growing market, accounting for $560 million in U.S. exports. Then in late April, the Asian nation implemented a ban on U.S. pork in the wake of an outbreak in humans of novel H1N1 influenza. As a result of the media misnaming the influenza virus, “swine flu,” China halted further pork exports from the United States.

The U.S. pork indust...