China is the world’s largest consumer of pork and also the United States’ largest customer for chicken exports.
Which makes China’s duties on U.S. sourced chicken that much more serious. In 2009, before anti-dumping tariffs took effect in September, the United States sold more than 600,000 metric tonnes of chicken to China. More than US$1 billion in sales will have been lost by the end of this year, according to a U.S. Trade Representative release.
The United States filed its complaint about the tariffs with the World Trade Organization on Sept. 20. The United States and China must try to settle the dispute over the following two months.