Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 9 • Number 5 • 20th March 2009

China Lashes out at Continued Avian Flu Poultry Ban

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Beijing is considering a WTO challenge of Washington’s ongoing ban on imports of Chinese chicken products, the Chinese government announced this week. Trade officials from China denounced the measure, which has been in place since 2004 and was extended by recent legislation, at a meeting of the WTO’s Agriculture Committee.

Following a 2004 outbreak of avian flu, Washington and Beijing banned imports of each other’s poultry, but both countries pledged to re-open their markets in the future. Although China lifted the ban several months later, officials from the country assert that the US continues the measure unfairly.

China’s recent posturing, however, is seen by many observers as the direct result of provisions in the federal budget signed into law by US President Barack Obama on 11 March. The bill, which provides funding for several US agencies including the Department of Agriculture, states that “none of the funds made available in this Act may be used to establish or implement a rule allowing poultry products to be imported into the United States from the People’s Republic of China.”

Provision is ‘discriminative’ and ‘protectionist’: China

China lashed out at the measure during the 12 March Agriculture Committee meeting, calling it clearly discriminatory. “It is needless to explain why such discriminative measures are forbidden by the WTO,” said Zhang Xiangchen, China’s deputy envoy to the World Trade Organization. “I believe that any trainee with a preliminary knowledge of the WTO disciplines will tell that this section violates the basic rules of the WTO including the MFN.”

According to the government-run Xinhua news service, Chinese trade officials also sent a note to the US Mission in Geneva urging “the US to eliminate such kind of discriminative and trade protectionist provision as soon as possible in order to correct its wrong decision. China would raise complaints to the WTO in this regard and maintain the right of further measures,” the note reportedly said.

Washington has asserted in the past that poor sanitary conditions in Chinese processing centres pose a health risk to US consumers. “We have a series of very critical food safety issues in China that need to be addressed,” said US Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro last week. DeLauro is the head of the appropriations subcommittee responsible for the controversial provision.

US says measures conform to SPS requirements

Under the WTO’s agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures (SPS), countries may establish safety requirements in response to such national concerns. The agreement, however, requires nations to base such regulations on scientific evidence, and to not arbitrarily or unjustifiably create a barrier to trade.

Last week before the WTO Committee on Agriculture, the US continued to assert that their measures are in conformity with the SPS agreement, and that Chinese concerns are being addressed by the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, which provides a forum for consultations regarding the agreement.

Beijing, however, argues that the US ban has little scientific justification and violates the basic principles of WTO law, noting that its poultry production meets international standards accepted by the European Union, Japan and Switzerland.

As China has seen its international trade surplus fall from a record US$ 40 billion for November last year to US$ 4.8 billion last month, Beijing has taken an aggressive stance against national stimulus packages and trade regulations it deems as protectionist (see Bridges Weekly, 4 March 2009, http://ictsd.net/i/news/bridgesweekly/42243/).

More generally, China’s position on the issue seems to indicate an increased willingness to engage in WTO Dispute Settlement. China has thus far been a respondent to fourteen complaints since it joined the WTO in 2001, but has only brought three of its own, all against the United States.

Notably, the US requested WTO consultations with the EU earlier this year regarding a prohibition by Brussels on the import of chicken treated with anti-bacterial chemicals such as chlorine dioxide, a US practice that Washington contends is safe and effective (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 23 January 2009, http://ictsd.net/i/news/biores/38523/).

ICTSD Reporting; “U.S. lawmaker blasts China food safety,” REUTERS, 18 March 2009; “China lambasts US move to block Chinese poultry,” INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, 13 March 2009; “China blasts “discriminative” U.S. measure on Chinese poultry imports,” XINHUA, March 12, 2009; “China protests U.S. poultry rule at WTO meeting,” REUTERS, 12 March 2009; “China Trade Surplus Plunges as Exports Fall by Record,” BLOOMBERG, 11 March 2009.