In The News

Chatham House: China and the WTO

Wim Muller March 10, 2017
By joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China agreed to dispute settlement processes and compulsory adjudication. “While in other areas, most notoriously the law of the sea, China has been reluctant to accept the decision-making power of international courts and tribunals, its WTO practice has shown that China can accept the jurisdiction of an international judicial body, accept its...

Independent: European Parliament Votes to End Visa-Free Travel for Americans

Jon Sharman March 6, 2017
The European Union expects consistent treatment by other nations for citizens of its member states. The European Parliament voted to end visa-free travel for Americans within the EU, after the United States “failed to agree to visa-free travel for citizens of five EU countries – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania – as part of a reciprocity agreement.” The United States, Australia,...

The Asia-Pacific Journal, Japan Focus: US-Chinese Tensions in the Trump Era – The Pitfalls of Economic Codependency

Stephen S. Roach March 4, 2017
Strident rhetoric about competitors and rivals is common in US presidential campaigns, and the Trump administration has appinted a team whose "anti-China credentials are without modern precedent,” explains Stephen Roach, author and Yale faculty member for the Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. “Its initial pronouncements point to a wide range of economic and political sanctions – from...

Wall Street Journal: China Draws More Students Back From Abroad

Te-Ping Chen March 2, 2017
More than 500,000 Chinese students studied at foreign universities in 2015 with the United States as the most popular destination followed by the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. “A rise in incomes and frustration with China’s ultracompetitive education system produced a study-abroad fervor of historic proportions,” reports Te-Ping Chen for the Wall Street Journal. “In recent years, around...

Project Syndicate: How Imports Boost Employment

Anne Krueger March 1, 2017
Trade – even imports – creates jobs in many ways, explains Anne Krueger, a former World Bank chief economist and a senior research professor of International Economics. Jobs include those associated with ports and retail sales as well as foreign direct investment. Companies that save money can direct more effort to innovation and R&D, and with the most efficient goods and services available,...

Financial Times: Trump Team Looks to Bypass WTO Dispute System

Shawn Donnan and Demetri Sevastopulo February 28, 2017
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...

Project Syndicate: The WTO Reborn?

Arvind Subramanian February 23, 2017
The World Trade Organization, a multilateral trade group with 164 members, has been marginalized in recent years due to increasing preference for bilateral and regional deals, explains Arvind Subramanian, chief economic adviser to the government of India in an essay for Project Syndicate. He points to three developments that could prompt the world to reconsider multilateralism and revive the WTO...