Financial Times: Trump Team Looks to Bypass WTO Dispute System
The United States is searching for legal ways to impose unilateral trade sanctions against some countries, including China, as faster and more direct alternatives than the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement process. “Since being established in 1995 the WTO has become the pre-eminent venue for resolving trade fights between member countries, which its proponents say has helped prevent destructive trade wars,” report Shawn Donnan and Demetri Sevastopulo for the Financial Times. “While the US would remain a WTO member under the Trump administration’s plans, the officials’ move reflects the sceptical view many of them have of an institution they see as a plodding internationalist bureaucracy biased against US interests.” During the US presidential campaign, Donald Trump and supporters proposed “America first” policies to promote the creation of jobs, while criticizing global trade agreements and groups including the WTO. The United States has been a respondent in 129 WTO cases and complainant in 114 cases. – YaleGlobal
Financial Times: Trump Team Looks to Bypass WTO Dispute System
Unilateral trade sanctions – rather than relying on the WTO dispute settlement process, would test a pillar of the US-built global economic order
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Read about the WTO’s dispute settlement processes: “Resolving trade disputes is one of the core activities of the WTO. A dispute arises when a member government believes another member government is violating an agreement or a commitment that it has made in the WTO. The WTO has one of the most active international dispute settlement mechanisms in the world. Since 1995, over 500 disputes have been brought to the WTO and over 350 rulings have been issued.”
The World Trade Organization also maps each member’s trade disputes as both respondent and complainant, including one for the United States.
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