Washington, May 10

The Obama administration today brought a fresh challenge to China’s anti-dumping duties on US broiler chicken products at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in an effort to bring the long-running trade dispute to a close.

The US Trade Representative (USTR)’s office said it is making claims that China’s anti-dumping and countervailing duties violate WTO rules, partly because China failed to properly calculate US poultry production costs.

China also failed to conduct transparent investigations and breached WTO rules in its finding that US poultry exports have injured Chinese producers, USTR said.

The complaint is the 12th challenge brought by the Obama administration against China at the WTO and marks its second objection following China’s 2010 imposition of anti-dumping duties on US broiler chicken products of up to 105.4 per cent and anti-subsidy duties of up to 30.3 per cent.

It comes during increasing US-China trade tensions as China’s economic slowdown has flooded markets worldwide with exports of manufactured goods.

US steel and aluminium producers have filed several major anti-dumping complaints against China in recent weeks with US Commerce Department and International Trade Commission.

China re-examined and lowered duties on US broiler chicken products in 2014 after WTO accepted US arguments they violated WTO rules.

Current anti-dumping duties are up to 73.3 per cent and anti-subsidy taxes up to 4.2 per cent.

However, USTR said it believed China’s revised duties affect producers like Tyson Foods Inc and Pilgrim’s Pride Corp.