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China protests US poultry imports ban

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-11 23:22

GENEVA -- China on Wednesday made a strong protest against a US act on poultry, saying the measure seriously violates basic World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and affects normal trade between the two countries.

The Omnibus Appropriation Act of 2009, approved by the US Senate on Tuesday, includes a section which bans any fund from being used to "establish or implement a rule" allowing the import of poultry products from China.

"We believe this is a typical discriminative and trade protectionist measure," said the Chinese mission to the Geneva- based WTO in a verbal note to its US counterpart.

"It violates the basic rules of the WTO seriously and affects the normal trade of poultry meat between China and US negatively and damages the rights of the Chinese poultry industries," the Chinese mission said.

According to the verbal note, the US measure has triggered strong reactions in China, and the government is under increasing pressure from the poultry industries to adopt retaliatory measures.

The US move was "totally unfair and of a bad nature," said the verbal note, adding that China would raise complaints to the WTO in this regard and maintain the right of further measures.

"At the same time, we would like to urge the US to eliminate such kind of discriminative and trade protectionist provision as soon as possible in order to correct its wrong decision," it said.

China says its manufactured poultry meat has been exporting to many countries and regions including Japan, the European Communities and Switzerland. The quality and sanitation safety are recognized broadly by the international community.