China Programme • Volume 13 • Number 14 • 22nd April 2009
China Instigates WTO Dispute Case against US Poultry Ban
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Beijing launched a WTO challenge to a US ban on Chinese poultry imports on Friday. The request for consultations follows months of outspoken criticism from Chinese officials, who denounced the regulation before the WTO’s Agriculture Committee last month (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 20 March 2009, http://ictsd.net/i/news/biores/43671/).
At issue is a ban of Chinese poultry that has been in place since the avian flu outbreak of 2004. Fearing the spread of the virus, both nations closed their borders to each others’ poultry, pledging to lift the ban in the future. Months later China resumed imports, but the US continued its ban, asserting that poor sanitary conditions in Chinese processing centres pose a health risk to US consumers.
But for China, a critical threshold was crossed on 11 March, when President Obama signed into law a federal budget that specifically forbids imports of Chinese poultry products. The clause that spells out the ban, Section 727, provoked a harsh response from Chinese trade officials, who denounced it and the ongoing ban as clearly discriminatory, vowing WTO recourse if the measure was not eliminated.
The announcement of China’s request for consultations on the matter – the first of many steps in the process of resolving disagreements among WTO Members – drew a measured response from Washington.“WTO dispute settlement is a normal and constructive mechanism to allow trading partners to resolve their differences,” Deborah Mesloh, spokeswoman for the office of the US Trade Representative, told Bridges. “We have received China’s request for consultations and are studying it.”
The complaint was welcomed by some within the US, notably the National Chicken Council, a US industry group.
“We agree that China’s decision to initiate a WTO settlement process is appropriate, although it is unfortunate that this issue has not already been resolved. Our position all along has been that USDA should make science-based decisions when countries apply to export poultry products to the United States,” said a 17 April press release from the NCC.
Washington continues to assert that the embargo is justified under the WTO’s Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, which allows countries to establish safety requirements based on scientific evidence.
“We have a series of very critical food safety issues in China that need to be addressed,” said US Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro in March.
It has long been Beijing’s position, however, that the US ban is protectionist and has no scientific basis. Chinese poultry production meets international standards that have been accepted by the European Union, Japan and Switzerland.
In related news, just two days after filing their WTO complaint, China’s government-run news agency, Xinhua, confirmed a new outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu at a wholesale market in Lhasa, leading to the culling of approximately 1,700 chickens. Earlier this year a similar outbreak led to the infection of 1,330 birds and the culling of approximately 12,000 more.
ICTSD reporting; “China Confirms Bird Flu Outbreak in Lhasa,” XINHUA, 19 April 2009; “China hauls US to WTO over poultry,” AFP, 18 April 2009; “China hauls US to WTO in 1st case vs. Obama admin,” ASSOCIATED PRESS, 17 April 2009; “China slashes U.S. measure of banning Chinese poultry import,” XINHUA, 17 April 2009; “China Culls 13,000 Poultry After Bird-Flu Outbreak,” BLOOMBERG, 11 February 2009.
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