The US is bringing a case against China in the World Trade Organisation to challenge the Asian nation’s imposition of trade remedies against American poultry exports, a move that could heighten economic tensions between the two countries.

The move was announced on Tuesday by Barack Obama’s administration, which charged that since China set the antidumping and countervailing duties against US chicken parts last September, American exports of those products had tumbled by 90 per cent, adversely affecting 300,000 producers and workers in the supply chain.

US officials said China was unfairly making use of these trade remedies to retaliate against other actions taken by the US on the trade enforcement front. In the case of poultry, this was occurring in violation of global trade rules that China agreed to when it joined the WTO a decade ago.