The United States says China violated international trade rules when it imposed tariffs on about $1 billion of U.S. chicken exports and has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk says the tariffs threaten 300,000 jobs in the U.S. poultry industry. The tariffs ranged from 50 to 100 percent, a U.S. trade official said. That means some Chinese importers paid as much as twice the price for U.S. chicken.

The case is one of several that U.S. trade officials have filed against China this year at the WTO. The United States has also filed complaints about Chinese duties on steel products and its subsidies of wind power equipment.

It generally takes about 12 to 18 months for the WTO to resolve a trade dispute.