Brasilia, Jul 12 (IANS): Brazil announced that it was conducting a study that may lead the government to issue a formal complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against China's decision to impose restrictions on the South American nation's chicken and sugar imports.

In May 2017, China imposed restrictions on sugar imported from Brazil. Later in June 2018, it also adopted anti-dumping measures on Brazil's chickens, saying that Chinese products suffered unfair competition with the South American giant, reports Efe news.

These measures forced importers to pay extra customs taxes of between 18.8 per cent and 38.4 per cent to China, an anti-dumping measure that compensates for the Brazilian products imported to the country at a lower than normal price.

China adopted such measures after an investigation suggested that Brazil's chickens were exported with a "dumping" price, which, according to the Chinese government, had substantially damaged its local industry.

Brazil is the world's largest exporter of chicken. More than 50 per cent of poultry products in China come from Brazil.

The Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services of Brazil said in a statement on Wednesday that the trade defence measures adopted by China have already been the subject of eight disputes at the WTO and the Asian giant was condemned in all cases.

In June, when China adopted the anti-dumping measures on Brazil's poultry imports, the Brazilian government said such measures lacked fundamentals and argued that its imports were not in any case responsible for injuring China's domestic market, which grew continuously throughout the period of the investigation.