China says duties on US chicken products lawful
2011-09-21 16:39:09
Beijing said Wednesday that duties imposed on US poultry exports were lawful, after Washington asked the World Trade Organization to look at Chinese tariffs on the billion-dollar chicken trade.
The commerce ministry said anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs were in line with WTO rules, after the United States opened a fresh front in the fight for better access to Chinese markets.
"China will carefully study the consultation request raised by the US and appropriately deal with the issue in accordance with WTO dispute settlement procedures," the ministry said in a statement.
The US move is the first step towards possible sanctions in the one-year-old dispute and is just the latest in a series of trade spats between the world's two largest economies.
US government lawyers estimate the duties hit 90 percent of exporters in the sector, obliterating a market that had been worth around $1 billion before duties were announced in September 2010.
"Our goal is to get real results for American exporters and support American jobs when jobs is the number one item on America's agenda, and particularly those jobs that depend on trade, including the almost 300,000 in the poultry industry that are affected by this particular case," said US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
China's decision to impose countervailing measures and anti-dumping duties was based on the fact that they believed the US had sold the poultry at lower prices and had also unfairly subsidised its domestic industry.
But the US believes China didn't provide transparent data to justify its actions under WTO rules. Furthermore, it believes the actions were in retaliation for President Barack Obama's decision to impose new tariffs on Chinese tyres.
"It is sending a message about retaliatory action saying that's not appropriate, we don't accept it. It is also sending a message that we want fair trade. It's sending the message that we want to follow WTO rules," said James Rice, CEO of CSM Foods Shanghai.
About 70 or 80 per cent of US exports are for chicken feet which is not a desired delicacy in the US, as it is in China. So in the US, they are sold for between 2 and 4 US cents a pound compared with about 35-45 cents a pound in China.
If the two sides don't reach agreement in the next 60 days, the WTO will set up a dispute settlement panel which could take up to two years to rule.