WTO rules against chicken import duty

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has ruled against a 58.9% rate of import duty placed by the European Union on cheap frozen, salted chicken cuts from Thailand and Brazil.

Imported by European food processors for direct use in manufacture of processed chicken products, the meat was liable to a concessionary 15.4% rate of import duty, from the time imports commenced in the mid1990s until 2002.

In 2002, the EU reclassified the frozen, salted boneless cuts as “salted meat’ rather than “frozen” products, making the imports subject to a 58.9% import duty, which prompted the two exporting countries to complain to the WTO.