Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- China has begun an investigation into alleged subsidies on imports of American broiler chicken products, two weeks after the U.S. imposed tariffs on tire shipments from the Asian nation.

The probe is a response to a petition from the China Animal Agriculture Association and is expected to be completed in a year, the Ministry of Commerce said today in a statement on its Web site. It comes after Group of 20 leaders meeting in Pittsburgh on Sept. 25 released a statement saying they would “fight protectionism.”

China announced that it would look into alleged dumping of U.S. auto and chicken products on Sept. 13, two days after President Barack Obama imposed tariffs on imports of automobile tires from the Asian nation. The U.S.’ move was in response to a so-called safeguard petition filed to protect its manufacturers.

“We’ll need to see what China decides to do after the probe to determine if a trade war is to happen,” Dong Shuzhi, head of research at Jinshi Futures Co. said from Shanghai today. “We would say the probe was a response to the tire dispute.”

The National Chicken Council, a Washington-based trade group, said Sept. 14 that Chinese poultry-dumping claims were retaliation for U.S. tire import duties. Today’s statement didn’t refer to the tariffs on $1.8 billion of tire imports from China.

China is the biggest overseas market for U.S. poultry and purchased nearly 800,000 metric tons valued at $722 million last year, according to the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council.

--Li Xiaowei Editors: Mike Millard, James Regan

To contact the Bloomberg News staff on this story: Li Xiaowei in Beijing at Xli12@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 27, 2009 02:49 EDT