WTO rules against US ban on Chinese poultry products
17 Jun 2010
China has won an interim ruling over the US ban on Chinese poultry exports from World Trade Organisation, which ruled the American curbs on Chinese poultry were violating international trade laws, the China Daily reported today.
The report said that the US ban violated the WTO's Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures that govern food safety measures in global trade, regulations on most-favoured-nation treatment and general elimination of quantitative restrictions under the WTO framework.
According to the report this was the first time that China had challenged US laws.
It quoted a Chinese commerce ministry official as saying, that the US was unlikely to attempt a similar ban next fiscal year, "for it will be regarded as open defiance of the latest WTO ruling."
The case is still under inquiry and the final ruling would depend on the US lodging an appeal under WTO regulations. If it were to lose again, the interim ruling would automaticcally become the final verdict.
The US ban on poultry imports refers to provision 727 of its the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 that was passed by the US Congress and became law March 2009, prohibiting the US government from paying for the import of any poultry products from China.
In April China lodged a appeal against this law with the WTO, saying it violated the world body's global trade rules.
The WTO upheld the Chinese contention, deeming the paymetn restriction imposed on the government by the US Congress, as a de facto ban on Chinese poultry products.
.webp)
