The Chinese government handed over an appeal to set up a panel to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism on EU’s tariff quota on poultry on June 19, 2015, requiring to hand over the case to review panel. Official from the Department of Treaty and Law of MOFCOM comments on it.
This official said the EU has made changes on the tariff reduction of some poultry products in 2006 and 2012, which increased the bound tariffs of some poultry products and set a tariff quota, distributing most of the tariff quotas to Brazil and Thailand while the rest of other WTO members including China could only get few tariff quotas. That measure has severely impaired the interest of China’s domestic poultry production and export enterprises. The Chinese government has negotiations with the EU in this respect on many different occasions but the EU has never managed to handle China’s concern. The Chinese side proposed to have negotiations with the EU side on its poultry tariff quota management measures under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism on April 8, 2015 and officially launched the WTO dispute settlement procedures (Case No. DS492). The two sides had negotiations in Geneva on May 26 but failed to reach compromise.
The official said it’s a legitimate act for Chinese side to appeal to set up a panel, unswervingly exercise the rights of WTO member and safeguard the legitimate rights of its domestic industry. We hope that the EU side could correct its wrongdoings and properly deal with China’s concern through trial and positive dialogue under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.
