China hopes the United States can give importance to China's strong concern over a poultry import ban dispute and resolve it by World Trade Organization (WTO) procedures, Ministry of Commerce spokesman Yao Jian said in a statement Wednesday.

The U.S. measure banning poultry imports from China violated WTO rules, Yao said. "The measure is obviously discriminatory," disrupted the normal poultry meat trade between China and the United States and harmed the due interests of the Chinese poultry industry.

Under Section 727 of the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, which was signed into U.S. law in March, none of the funds made available in the Omnibus Appropriations Act can be used to "establish or implement a rule" allowing imports of poultry products from China.

China wrote Tuesday to the chairman of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body through the Permanent Mission of China to the WTO, requiring it to set up an expert panel to investigate the U.S. import ban on Chinese poultry, Yao said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2009)