US Chicken Feet To Face Chinese Duties
By: Ainsley Brown
In yet another sign of the increasing trade rift between Washington and Beijing, the Chinese have announced last Friday that they will impose duties on imported US chicken feet.
Yes, I said chicken feet and not chicken. While many of my readers might find it unusual, perhaps even revolting, that someone would be eating chicken feet, the Chinese, and for that matter many other cultures, have no such repulsion.
The anti-dumping duties, which range from 43.1% to 105.4%, are set to take effect on Feb 12. They come after a Chinese investigation into allegations of dumping of chicken feet – something that is normally deemed virtually worthless in the US – on to the Chinese market. Such dumping, it is alleged has triggered the material injury provisions under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Anti-Dumping rules, allowing the Chinese to retaliate with these steep tariffs. In other words the dumped chicken feet from the US is in such quantities as to alter the dynamics of the domestic Chinese domestic market to the detriment of the local producers. Moreover, the dumping is so pernicious, according to the Chinese that the price of the dumped chicken feet would only in some cases cover the price of freight.
This issue might not seem to be all that important, after all its only chicken feet but you would be sadly mistaken if that’s what you think. Firstly, this dispute needs to be examined in over all Sino-US relations, of which trade is a very important subset. When this is done it will become clear that this is unwelcomed news and is one more salvo in the prolonged tit for tat trade sanctions war between these two nations. I am not saying here that the US and China are in a trade war – far from it – however, what I am saying is to expect much of the same from both nations.
Secondly, these duties represent a significant blow to the US chicken feet producers, as they have developed over the years a very profitable niche market to China for something that would generally be considered waste. Consider this; in the US chicken feet producers could ordinarily expect 2¢ per pound, while in China they can expect 20 times as much per pond, according to the Financial Times. Given the current economic situation in the US, especially on the jobs front these duties could be costly indeed.
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