USA: “reckoning” over China is too big for the WTO.
A “reckoning” over China’s unfair trade policies is urgent and too big for the World Trade Organization to handle, said U.S. Ambassador Dennis Shea at a WTO meeting; Washington has escalated its trade dispute with Beijing by threatening to impose 10% tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.
GENEVA (Reuters) - A "reckoning" over China's unfair trade policies is urgent and too big for the World Trade Organization to handle, U.S. Ambassador Dennis Shea said at a WTO meeting on Wednesday.
Washington escalated its trade dispute with Beijing by threatening to impose 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. In response, Beijing accused the United States on Wednesday of intimidation and said it would complain to the WTO.
However, Shea said that the WTO, based in Geneva, is not the place to resolve the dispute.
"Considering China's large and growing role in international trade and the serious damage that China's mercantilist and state-led approach to trade and investment causes to China's trading partners, this reckoning can no longer be postponed," he said.
“It is clear that, in addition, the WTO currently does not offer all the necessary tools to resolve this situation,” Shea told the WTO’s biennial review of China’s trade policies.
Under President Donald Trump, the United States has demanded that the WTO dispute settlement system be changed to prevent the United States from receiving what it considers an "unfair settlement."
By Tom Miles