July 22, 2009

The US has blocked the creation of a WTO panel sought by China to investigate a US ban on Chinese poultry imports, which Beijing said is a violation of WTO rules.

 

In response to the block, China has called for an extra meeting of the dispute settlement body on July 31 to approve the panel, which will be established after that session.

 

China's WTO delegation said the ban has undermined the stable development of Sino-US trade on poultry products and has damaged the interests of the Chinese poultry industry.

 

China launched the trade dispute in April, but WTO procedures allow the defendant in a trade row to block a dispute panel once.

 

US legislators wrote a ban on funding arrangements for Chinese poultry imports, such as setting up health checks at US ports, into its appropriations bill after a series of food safety scandals in China.

 

US trade groups said China has stopped importing some US chicken products.

 

In a similar case, South Korea has blocked the formation of a panel sought by Canada to investigate Seoul's ban on Canadian beef imports, imposed after a series of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease in Canada.