Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

US appeals against China’s WTO trade war tariff victory

US appeals against China’s WTO trade war tariff victory

The United States has chosen to appeal China’s WTO tariff victory ‘into the void’, with the appellate body defunct since Washington refused to appoint new judges.


The United States has lodged an appeal against a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that some of President Donald Trump’s trade war tariffs on China were unlawful.

The United States has lodged an appeal against a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that some of President Donald Trump’s trade war tariffs on China were unlawful, according to a Geneva trade official.

The move was announced by the chair of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body at the start of a meeting in Geneva on Monday.

The US move effectively derails any action China might have taken against the dispute award, made in September.

The WTO’s appellate body – the Geneva body’s final appeal court – is essentially defunct, after the US refused to confirm any new judges in protest over perceived overreach in the court’s judgments. In WTO parlance, the case will now be “appealed into the void”, since there is no appeal court to hear it.

A disputes court panel ruled in China’s favour in September over unilateral US tariffs imposed on US$234 billion worth of goods in 2018 and 2019, after the US failed to convince the panel that the tariffs were legitimate under a “public morals” defence.

dditional WTO suits brought by Beijing over further rounds of US tariffs on China are still under review.

In a responding statement, China accused the US of “taking advantage of the current paralysis” of the appeals function at the WTO, the source confirmed. China described the appeal as “an abuse of WTO procedural rules”, adding that “it was high time for all WTO members to show responsibility”.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer lashed out against the initial ruling in September, saying: “This panel report confirms what the Trump administration has been saying for four years: the WTO is completely inadequate to stop China’s harmful technology practises.”

Thus, the US’ decision to appeal has not come as a surprise to trade watchers.

WTO nominee vows to bring US and China to negotiating table


“With the appellate body no longer able to function, governments have the ability to appeal cases to prevent them from having legal effect. The US has done this before, and was expected to do this here,” said Simon Lester, a policy analyst at the pro-free trade Cato Institute.

“In terms of the practical effects of the US appeal, they are probably limited. Ultimately, the most a WTO victory can provide is authorisation to impose retaliatory sanctions,” Lester added. “But here, China already retaliated for the US tariffs at issue, so this WTO authorisation wouldn’t add much. It is more of a moral victory than a step towards US compliance.”

But others claimed that the US’ decision to appeal against a WTO case it lost exposes hypocrisy in its own positions, since Washington was instrumental in hobbling the appeal court in the first place.

“If the US were to appeal, then that would go against its own principled position. There is a problem with the appellate body? So why are you appealing? You should just accept what the panel said. To my mind, this is the turning point.

This is when we say the system is no longer functioning, it has crashed,” said Chin Leng Lim, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, in an interview before the appeal was lodged.

The US has long had grievances with China’s positions at the WTO, notably its status as a developing nation.

US, China and the “doomsday scenario” for the global trading system


With the WTO looking to appoint a new director general over the coming fortnight, the pressure is on both remaining candidates – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
of Nigeria and Yoo Myung-hee of South Korea – to convince Washington that they are able to instil real reform, but also assuage Beijing’s fears that reform will not be too sweeping.

“China really does not want much reform of the WTO. The status quo works for China, there’s no question about that. And that is the whole problem from the US perspective – the lack of momentum towards reform is in China’s interest,” said Clete Willems, partner at law firm Akin Gump, a former trade adviser to the Trump White House, before which he was legal adviser to the US Mission to the WTO.

At the same meeting on Monday, WTO members approved the European Union’s request to impose retaliatory tariffs against the US for failing to comply with a WTO ruling on government subsidies for Boeing. In September, an arbitrator determined that the maximum retaliation could be just shy of US$4 billion.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×