China's Unfair Trade Practices Slammed At WTO Trade Review

China was accused of a laundry list of trade felonies and economic bullying during a series of attacks by other nations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva on Wednesday, laying bare growing geopolitical rifts and widening schisms in the multilateral trading system, Finbarr Bermingham reported for South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Photo Insert: The World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva

The United States, European Union, Japan, Britain, Australia, and Canada took part in the pile-on at China’s first WTO trade policy review since 2018, according to a well-placed source. All WTO members must participate in trade policy reviews, essentially peer-group assessments, along with an in-depth analysis conducted by the WTO secretariat.

China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, led a team of 20 officials from seven Chinese agencies via video link and used the occasion to promote Beijing’s achievements, including its poverty alleviation drive and economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. China will have a chance to defend itself on Friday, during the second part of the review.

The session Wednesday clearly showed widespread dissatisfaction with China‘s trading behavior. Several Western countries decried China’s perceived bullying. Australia, which has been involved in a trade and diplomatic spat with China since early last year, accused Beijing of “increasingly testing global trade rules and norms by engaging in practices that are inconsistent with WTO commitments.”

Canada’s envoy highlighted “the recent pattern regarding China‘s growing willingness to deploy economic coercive measures to block or otherwise hinder trade in response to political disagreements.”

For its part, the US expressed regret that China had not reformed its economy in the manner expected when it acceded to the WTO in 2001. “Members expected that the terms set forth in China‘s protocol of accession would permanently dismantle existing Chinese policies and practices that were incompatible with an international trading system expressly based on open market-oriented policies. But those expectations have not been realized, and it appears that China has no inclination to change,” according to David F. Bisbee, the US chargé d’Affaires at the WTO.

He accused Beijing of using the “imprimatur of WTO membership to become the WTO's largest trader while doubling down on its state-led, non-market approach to trade.”

The British delegation called on China to “ratify and effectively implement the International Labor Organization (ILO) forced labor convention,” saying that forced labor is “unacceptable wherever and whenever it occurs.”

The EU criticized China’s expansive use of an excessively broad concept of national security, negatively affecting foreign companies. “It has become increasingly clear that such distortions cannot be sufficiently addressed by current WTO rules,” the EU said in a statement following the forum.

Japan accused China of lacking transparency and of distorting global steel markets with overcapacity.

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