GENEVA • Tensions between the United States and China are about to get more complicated, with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) poised to begin an investigation into US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on US$250 billion (S$338 billion) of Chinese goods..
GENEVA • Tensions between the United States and China are about to get more complicated, with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) poised to begin an investigation into US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on US$250 billion (S$338 billion) of Chinese goods.
Today, the Geneva-based arbiter of trade disputes will likely launch an inquiry into whether the US duties run afoul of a requirement that all WTO members give each other the same tariff treatment, as China asserts.
The investigation comes at a delicate moment between the world’s two largest economies. A new round of trade talks is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, and if a deal is not reached by March 1, the Trump administration has threatened to raise the tariff rate on US$200 billion in Chinese goods to 25 per cent from 10 per cent.
„This WTO case is especially significant because it deals with the central international legal issue in the US conduct of its trade war with China – whether the US can impose trade restrictions on China in response to alleged Chinese WTO violations without first seeking dispute settlement in the WTO,“ Mr James Bacchus, a former Democratic congressman and onetime head of the WTO’s appellate body, said in an e-mail.
