US regrets supporting WTO membership for China, Russia

WASHINGTON: China and Russia have shown no intention of living up to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and Washington should not have supported their membership in the global trade body, said the Trump administration on Friday.

In strongly worded reports to Congress, the United States trade representative delivered a laundry list of grievances over unfair trade practices by Beijing and Moscow it says runs counter to global free trade rules.

Robert Lighthizer said the reports showed “the global trading system was threatened by major economies that do not intend to open their markets to trade and participate fairly”.

“This practice was incompatible with the market-based approach expressly envisioned by WTO members and contrary to the fundamental principles of the WTO,” he said.

President Donald Trump has ratcheted up retaliatory measures against foreign trading partners, notably China, as part of his “America First” economic agenda.

That included an aggressive new trade probe into possible dumping of aluminium and steel.

The US had a US$309 billion (RM1.2 trillion) trade deficit in goods and services with China in 2016, and that was on track to expand by US$10 billion last year.

WTO rules were insufficient to correct Beijing’s interventionist policies, and the US “erred” in supporting China’s membership in 2001, the reports added. AFP