28.09.2010

China's Commerce Ministry Sunday unveiled its final order in an antidumping investigation against U.S. poultry. Effective yesterday, Beijing is levying duties ranging from 50% to 104%, depending on the producer, on imports of products such as chicken feet. The Chinese government claims U.S. companies sell in the Chinese market at a price less than their cost of production. In a separate case in August, Beijing slapped countervailing duties of between 4% and 31% on the imports, claiming U.S. agricultural policies unfairly subsidize chicken production in America.

US poultry exports to China were worth $676m (€460m, £422m) last year and the US accounted for 90 per cent of the 407,000 tonnes of chicken products China imported in the first half of this year.

About half of those exports were chicken feet, which sell for just two cents a pound in the US but fetch more than 20 times that price in China, where they are considered a delicacy.