US promises a ‘reckoning’ against abuse

geneva — The Trump administration admonished China on Wednesday for failing to abide by World Trade Organisation rules and threatened to double down on its unilateral approach to punishing Beijing’s alleged trade abuses.

The US is mulling actions “outside the WTO” to curb China’s trade abuses, Deputy US Trade Representative Dennis Shea told a meeting of trade officials at the WTO’s triennial review of China’s trade policies in Geneva. “This reckoning can no longer be put off.”

The American critique comes a day after the US laid out plans to impose tariffs on an additional $200 billion in Chinese goods, escalating the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Beijing described the latest US move as “totally unacceptable” and vowed to fight back. “We find no indication that China has been prepared to make the fundamental changes that would be necessary to bring its trade and investment regime into alignment with the regimes of other WTO members,” Shea said, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.

On Tuesday, the US Trade Representative launched a process under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to respond to “China’s harmful industrial policies” with 10 per cent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.

Shea’s comments heightened fears that the Trump administration will escalate its trade conflict with China in a way that sidelines the WTO and reverses the tide of global economic growth. A full-blown global trade war would shave 0.4 percentage point off world growth, according to Bloomberg Economics.

The WTO doesn’t “offer all of the tools necessary to remedy this situation” , Shea said.

us is mulling actions outside the WTO to curb China’s trade abuses Dennis Shea, Deputy US Trade Representative