The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in favor of China in the dispute over the U.S. ban on poultry imports from China in an interim report.

The WTO interim ruling said the U.S. import ban on China's poultry violates the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, or the SPS Agreement, which spells out how governments can apply food safety and animal and plant health measures, as well as other treatments or restrictions under the WTO legal framework.

The decision can be appealed, according to WTO rules, but the report will be considered the panel's final verdict if the United States loses the appeal.

The ruling was in response to an appeal China filed in April 2009 to protest a key clause in a 2009 U.S. law that prohibited Chinese exports of poultry.