China seeks WTO help fighting U.S. tariffs

BEIJING — China announced it filed a World Trade Organization challenge yesterday to President Trump’s latest tariff threat, stepping up its diplomatic efforts to counter U.S. pressure in a spiraling technology dispute.

The Trump administration has criticized the WTO as unable to deal with the problems posed by China, suggesting a challenge there might have little impact in Washington. But it might help Beijing rally support from governments that criticized Trump for going outside the WTO to impose tariffs on Chinese and other imports.

The move is unusually swift, coming less than one week after the U.S. trade representative proposed 10 per- cent tariffs on a $200 billion list of Chinese goods. Those wouldn’t take effect until at least September.

China’s lopsided trade balance means it will run out of U.S. imports for penalty tariffs before Washing- ton does. Beijing is trying to recruit support, so far in vain, from Europe, South said “We Tu Korea are Xingquan, unable and other to director fight governments. equally,” of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. Yesterday’s move “indicates that we value the role of the WTO rules,” said Tu.

Washington imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods in response to complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. Beijing responded immediately by imposing identical penalties on a similar amount of American imports.

AP PHOTOS CHALLENGE IN CHINA: A pedestrian, above, passes a billboard in the Central Business District and a worker, right, loads goods outside a clothing mall in Beijing yesterday, as the country sought allies in its trade tiff with the U.S.