China's anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imported poultry products from U.S. are legal and in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, the country's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said Wednesday.

The ministry said in an online statement that it had received consultation requests from the U.S. and will "closely study the US request and properly resolve the issue according to WTO dispute settlement procedures".

China's response came after the U.S. filed a complaint to the WTO over the duties China imposed on US chicken products last year. The U.S. has asked the WTO dispute settlement body to step into the issue.

The U.S. said China's tariffs on US chicken have violated its commitment as a WTO member and is threatening 300,000 jobs in the U.S. poultry industry.

According to WTO procedures, China and the United States need to first try to resolve the trade dispute through consultations. If they fail to reach any agreement within 60 days, a WTO panel will hear the case at the request of the United States.

MOFCOM launched an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into US chicken products in September 2009. A year later in September 2010, the ministry concluded that U.S. producers had received improper government subsidies for their exports to China and hurt China's domestic industry. Therefore, China started imposing anti-dumping duties of between 50.3 percent to 105.4 percent on imports of US chicken products with a term of five years.

China imported 584,300 tons of US chicken products in 2008, up 12.34 percent year-on-year. In the first half of 2009, China imported 305,600 tons of chicken from the U.S., rising 6.54 percent year-on-year.

U.S. Trade Representative's Office said Tuesday that US chicken imports to China dropped 90 percent since China imposed tariffs.