Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- China’s move to investigate whether the U.S. sold poultry to the Asian nation for below-market prices was prompted partly by bad U.S. trade policies, the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council said.

China is responding to the Obama administration’s decision to impose tariffs on imports of Chinese tires and a decision by Congress that effectively bans imports of cooked poultry, James Sumner, president of the poultry council, said today in a telephone interview. The council, representing producers of 90 percent of U.S. chicken and egg exports, opposed both policies.

“Our own government is creating these problems more so than the Chinese,” Sumner said. “We are upset with the way this has been handled by the administration.”

While the council understands China’s frustration, the dumping claims are baseless, Sumner said. U.S. chicken feet are exported to China for 60 cents to 80 cents a pound, multiple times the domestic price, which invalidates the allegation that poultry is being dumped in China, Sumner said. China consumes about 19 percent of U.S. chicken exports, including most of the chicken feet shipped from the U.S., according to industry data.

“This is a significant issue for us because we get a significant upgrade on those chicken paws,” D. Michael Cockrell, chief financial officer of Sanderson Farms Inc., said today in a telephone interview. “The charge that we are dumping product on their market is false.”

Sanderson, the fourth-biggest U.S. chicken producer, exported $232.9 million of poultry last year, and China accounts for about 20 percent of exports, Cockrell said. The company is based in Laurel, Mississippi.

China Poultry Market

China is the biggest market for U.S. poultry, consuming nearly 800,000 metric tons of the country’s chicken last year, valued at $722 million, according to the poultry export council.

“We hope China withdraws this action once the Chinese realize we have been supportive of them on trade issues and that there is no justification whatsoever for their action,” said Sumner of the poultry export council, which is based in Stone Mountain, Georgia.

The National Chicken Council, a Washington-based trade group, said today that Chinese poultry-dumping claims are retaliation for U.S. tire import duties. The state-run China Daily newspaper said yesterday the probe was “not revenge” for the tariffs.

The U.S. on Sept. 11 placed tariffs starting at 35 percent on $1.8 billion of tire imports from China, backing a United Steelworkers union complaint against the second-largest U.S. trading partner.

Cooked Chicken

The U.S. Congress this year continued a ban on imports of cooked chicken. U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, pushed for the ban, saying China doesn’t have government safeguards in place to guarantee food exports are free of avian influenza and other diseases.

The Chinese government has filed a complaint against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, saying the ban on cooked chicken imports is “unfair and malicious” and violates global trade rules.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Kaskey in New York at jkaskey@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 14, 2009 15:01 EDT