China accepts WTO ruling against anti-dumping duties on US chicken

CHINA has accepted a World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling that it improperly levied anti-dumping duties on US chicken on the basis that American producers were dumping chicken parts at below US domestic prices.

China did not challenge the ruling, but has not said when it would end the import taxes either, reported Newark's Journal of Commerce.

In 2009, China was the largest foreign market for US broiler meat, buying 613,000 tonnes. When Beijing imposed anti-dumping duties, Americans lost 90 per cent of their sales in China.

The WTO said China had not properly assigned correct prices for certain chicken parts that sell well in China, but not in the US. Instead, it improperly averaged the price of all chicken parts, said the WTO panel.

Most chicken feet consumed in Hong Kong, for example, come from the southeastern US, where demand is miniscule compared to the enormous demand in China, said Jim Sumner, president of the Savannah-based USA Poultry & Egg Export Council.

But chicken wings, popular in America as a pub snack called "buffalo wings" (because they were first retailed in Buffalo, New York), arouse little interest in China, though they enjoy high demand in the US.

Chicken from Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas is the cargo that balances trade through the Port of Savannah, with white meat going to Japan and dark meat going to Russia.

In siding with the US, the WTO panel ruled that China's average-cost accounting was not acceptable in determining whether a particular part of chicken was dumped.

Said Mr Sumner: "The most important thing is to put this unfortunate situation behind us. We're also hopeful that China will remove anti-dumping duties on US chicken imports quickly."