China concludes that US chicken is being dumped

BEIJING — China has concluded that U.S. chicken products are being sold at unfairly low prices in China, and will impose antidumping duties of as much as 105.4 percent for the next five years, the government said Sunday. The Commerce Ministry's announcement comes amid a string of trade spats with Washington. The ministry said the government completed its investigation on Sunday. The new duties, which take effect Monday, will replace earlier anti-dumping measures imposed in February after preliminary results of the probe showed that US chicken was being sold at below fair value, it said. "Dumping does exist in the imported chicken products from the United States and has caused substantial harm to China's domestic industry," the ministry said in a notice on its website. Importers that responded to the investigation must now pay tariff rates of between 50.3 percent and 53.4 percent on US broiler or chicken products, the ministry announced. Companies that did not respond were levied a 105.4 percent duty. The tariffs apply to chicken parts and whole birds, but not to live chickens or cooked products such as chicken sausage. Included are chicken feet, which most Americans throw away but are a delicacy in southern China. In the first half of last year, as imports from the US rose 6.54 percent from the previous year, the domestic industry suffered losses amounting to 1.09 billion yuan ($162 million), almost equivalent to its losses for all of 2008, the ministry said. Beijing and Washington also are embroiled in disputes over access to each other's markets for steel pipes, movies and books and other goods. The trade disputes have proliferated as the two governments try to boost exports amid weak demand. They have accused each other of protectionism that they say could slow a global recovery. —AP