中美今年达成的一项鸡肉贸易，近日被英国《金融时报》称为是“天作之合”，而促成这一桩美事的大功臣竟是“鸡爪”！

这篇文章称，中国人对美国鸡爪的喜爱，是达成一项完美互惠贸易的秘诀。中国希望向美国出口熟制鸡肉，解决国内禽肉加工厂的生计，而美国希望向中国出口鸡爪。

文章称，美国人每年吃掉90亿只鸡，但是却不吃鸡爪。那总共就要剩下180亿只鸡爪？？

Americans eat about 9bn chickens a year, but not the feet. Southern Chinese, on the other hand, import about 300,000 tonnes each year of the delicacy known to diners as “phoenix claws” and to the industry as “chicken paws”. It’s a match made in free trade heaven.

美国人一年大概能吃掉90亿只鸡，但不吃鸡脚。然而，中国南方人每年会进口大约30万吨鸡脚，食客们将这种美食称为“凤爪”，禽肉业则称其为“鸡爪”。此乃自由贸易中的天作之合。

Chicken feet are not particularly expensive. In fact, they are worth zero to most Americans. But margins on industrially farmed chicken in the US are so tight that selling the feet to China in enormous frozen blocks rather than throwing them away in the US makes for a nice difference in profits.

鸡脚并不是很贵。事实上，对大多数美国人而言，它们一文不值。然而，美国工业化养鸡业的利润如此紧巴巴，因此把鸡脚大批量冷冻起来卖给中国（而不是在美国丢弃），能很好地增加利润。

The Chinese do not eat much pre-cooked chicken (although processed food is growing in market share as urban lifestyles get busier). But entrepreneurial Chinese chicken processors had set their sights on the US market, and Beijing was willing to leverage chicken feet to crack it open.

中国人不怎么吃熟制鸡肉（虽然随着城市的生活节奏日渐加快，加工食品的市场份额也在逐渐增加）。但中国的鸡肉加工商早就将目光瞄准了美国市场，中国政府也乐于用鸡脚撬开美国市场的大门。

当然，这笔完美的“爪子”买卖今年才终于达成，也是多亏了特朗普政府今年春天宣布的《中美经济合作百日计划早期收获》中的一项条款。