China requests WTO to examine US import ban on poultry products

 

 

China's government Tuesday (June 23) requested the World Trade Organization to examine the US ban on the import of Chinese poultry products, the Ministry of Commerce said Wednesday.

 

Yao Jian, a ministry spokesman, said the "discriminatory" US ban violates WTO rules and hurts the interests of China's poultry industry, according to a statement posted on the ministry's Web site.

 

China raised a negotiation request under the WTO in April, but talks between the two countries that followed failed to resolve the issue, the statement added.

 

In 2004, China and the US banned poultry imports from each other following a bird flu outbreak.

 

They agreed to lift the bans at a Sino-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade the same year. China, which lifted the ban after a few months, complains the US hasn't reciprocated yet.