The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled in favor of the United States, determining that China had failed to comply with an earlier ruling and faulting them for antidumping and countervailing duties imposed on U.S. chicken imports.
With the latest ruling, China will be expected to lower its duties, unless it files an appeal within 20 days.
The ruling is the latest development in the trade dispute that dates back to 2010 when China first implemented the antidumping duties of up to 105.4 percent, and anti-subsidy duties of up to 30.3 percent, according to a report from Reuters.
“We are very pleased with the World Trade Organization’s decision supporting our position that duties imposed by China on U.S. chicken products are unfair and harmful to American famers,” Sens. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, and Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, co-chairmen of the Senate Chicken Caucus, said in a joint statement.
“We take unfair duties on U.S. poultry very seriously. China has imposed duties on U.S. chicken since 2010 and has been faulted by the WTO for them before. Despite China’s continued efforts to justify these duties, this latest decision from the WTO indicates that their rationale is not effective and their duties are, quite simply, an unfair trade practice. The economic health of America’s agricultural sector is directly tied to its access to foreign markets, and China should be held accountable for failing to abide by international trade agreements and effectively closing their market to American chicken farmers,” the senators continued.
Since the initial duties were imposed, the U.S. challenged the duties through the WTO, and in 2013, the WTO determined that the Chinese duties were in breach of the international organization’s rules.
China re-investigated the issue in 2014 and issued a re-determination, claiming its duties on U.S. chicken products are justified and said its redetermination brought China back into compliance with WTO rules. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) again challenged China in 2016.
