WTO Rules Against US Poultry Ban

China is believed to have won against the US poultry import ban after an interim report by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The WTO ruling said the US import ban on China’s poultry violates the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Agreement – which spells out how governments can apply food safety and animal and plant health measures – as well as most-favored-nation treatment and general elimination of quantitative restrictions under the WTO legal framework.

“We think the US will not try to impose a similar ban in the next fiscal year, since it would be regarded as open defiance of the latest WTO ruling,” an anonymous Chinese told China Daily.

China originally filed an appeal with the WTO to protest the US ban of its poultry in April 2009.