US slammed by WTO over law banning Chinese poultry

Increasing hostility between the USA and China over trade has been ruffled further after the WTO ruled against America in a dispute over a ban on imports of Chinese chicken products.

The WTO dispute panel ruled on 29 September that a ban on imports of Chinese poultry products, enacted in 2004 during the bird-flu crisis, was discriminatory as China has met health and safety criteria to export poultry to other WTO members.

China has already imposed considerable tariffs on US poultry in response, announcing increases last weekend, with producers now facing tariffs of between 50.3% 105.4%.

This comes on the back of a rocky year for US poultry exports with Russia only recently opening its doors to imports from the US after it imposed a ban on all chicken treated with chlorinated water earlier this year.

The WTO ruling comes at a time when the House of Representatives in Washington has overwhelmingly approved a bill that allows for tariffs against goods produced in countries whose currencies are overvalued.

The US has long argued the Chinese yuan is overvalued and President Obama, speaking recently, said he would put extra pressure on authorities in Beijing to relax currency controls.

China has promised to allow its currency to rise, but since June it has only risen 2%.