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China urges US to lift poultry trade ban

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-28 14:35

China on Feb 27 urged the United States to rescind a section of the Omnibus Appropriations Act 2009 that does not allow for the lifting of the import ban on Chinese poultry products.

Related readings:  China tightens control over exporting livestock, poultry genetic resources  EU lifts import ban on Chinese meat and poultry products  US stimulus plan may create trade barriers

On Feb 25, the US House of Representatives passed the $410-billion spending bill that would fund the federal government through September, the end of fiscal year 2009.

Section 727 said, "None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to establish or implement a rule allowing poultry products to be imported into the United States from the People's Republic of China".

"This is a typical discriminatory and p rotectionist action and it is in serious violation of the World Trade Organization's most-favored-nation treatment and general elimination of quantitative restrictions," Yao Jian, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, said in a statement on the ministry's website.

The clause seriously disturbed the normal poultry trade between the two nations and harmed the legitimate rights and interests of China's poultry industry, Yao said.

China was strongly opposed to the section and urged the United States to abolish it, he said, adding China reserved the right to appeal to the WTO.