China ups ante in US WTO dispute over poultry

 

The Chinese government says the US is breaching international trade rules through a spending bill that it says contains a clause banning imports of Chinese poultry.

 

"While violating various WTO rules, the measure has severely undermined the stable development of Sino-US trade (in) poultry products and damaged the lawful rights and interests of China's poultry industry," a Chinese official said at a WTO dispute settlement body meeting.

 

"This constitutes a typical discriminatory protectionism measure in international trade," the official added.

 

A member of the US delegation said that its position reflected "an objective, science-based consideration" of relevant evidence permitted under WTO rules.

 

There was "no basis" to the Chinese complaint, the US official said.

 

China and the US halted imports of each other's poultry in 2004 over fears about the spread of bird flu.

 

Imports of some US poultry products to China have since resumed but Chinese officials have complained that the US continues to hold up reciprocal imports of Chinese poultry.

 

China imported 580,000 tonnes of US chicken products last year, accounting for 73.4 percent of all such imports, China's official Xinhua news agency reported in April.