The US Trade Policy Is Criticized By WTO.

Participate in

The biennial review of the US trade policy by the World Trade Organization (WTO) was held in Geneva from September 29th to October 1st. Although the US delegation insisted that the United States was the most open market, its dual aspects of trade policy were criticized by many members of the WTO, and even the traditional allies of the United States had some complaints.

Michael, a US Deputy trade negotiator and ambassador to WTO, insisted that the United States is "the most open market in the world" and its trade policy is "the most pparent".

Faced with the difficulties of the economic crisis, the market remained open and no trade protection measures were taken.

Punk also said that the US government attaches great importance to the multilateral trading system, and hopes to promote the completion of the Doha Round negotiations and achieve a high level of market access. Developing countries should work together with the United States and make contributions.

But the comments of punk have not been recognized by other members of the WTO. Many members' speeches focus on criticizing the US trade policy, while some of the traditional American allies have also criticized the US policy.

These criticisms focus mainly on six aspects.

First of all, criticism is directed at the rise of US trade protectionism and the abuse of trade remedy measures.

ASEAN, Japan, China, the European Union, Brazil and India expressed concern and dissatisfaction with the increasing protectionism of the United States.

Sun Zhenyu, China's permanent ambassador to the WTO, pointed out in his speech that half of the 50 trade remedy measures in the United States in 2009 were against Chinese products. In the last 10 days of from November 2nd to 12th last year, the US Department of Commerce launched 20 anti dumping or countervailing investigations against Chinese products, which is unique in the history of world trade.

The representative of Brazil also pointed out that the anti-dumping measures adopted by the United States increased by 10% in 2009, and countervailing measures increased by 200%, posing a serious threat to international trade.

Second, the United States wields trade protectionist sticks to crack down on other countries, but at the same time, it provides large subsidies to its enterprises and support from government procurement.

In response, members of the European Union and Japan pointed out that the policies and measures adopted by the United States after the financial crisis, such as "buying American goods" and "employing Americans", are clearly against their international commitments.

In addition, the United States on the one hand requires other countries to join the GPA, but on the other hand, as the Contracting Party of the agreement, there are still more than 10 states in the United States that have not fulfilled the obligations of the members concerned.

{page_break}

The third problem is that the United States is actively using the dispute settlement mechanism to prosecute other members' "illegal" acts of trade, but delays or refuses to implement a failed arbitration decision against itself.

According to the WTO Secretariat, the United States has exclusive 6 of the 7 cases that have not yet fully fulfilled the arbitration decisions.

Members of the European Union pointed out that the delay or refusal of the United States to implement the verdict results in serious damage to the legitimacy and credibility of the WTO, sending wrong signals to other members, and hoping that the United States can improve its record as soon as possible.

The fourth is agricultural trade policy.

Members of Brazil, Australia and the EU strongly criticized the US's high agricultural subsidies, high tariffs, non-tariff measures and unreasonable inspection and quarantine measures, which believed that these measures greatly restricted the entry of other countries' agricultural products into the US market.

For example, the United States provides high subsidies to the so-called "planned crops" such as corn, cotton, soybeans, wheat and rice; the tariff rate of some agricultural products is as high as 350%; on the basis of various animal and plant quarantine measures or standards, it limits the export of beef and pork from Brazil and the EU to the United States, and limits the import of India mango and Chinese chicken products.

The fifth is industrial manufactured goods.

Many representatives said that although the average tariff of US industrial products is about 4% and relatively low, high tariffs are still maintained for major export products, such as textiles, clothing, footwear and food in developing countries, and the tariffs on footwear are even up to 58%.

Various customs duties and cumbersome procedures also increase the cost of developing countries' exports to the United States.

The sixth is the Doha Round negotiations.

The United States has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the Doha Round negotiations, but the negative attitude and unreasonable price in this process have been criticized by many members.

Brazil reminds the United States that the United States should be a responsible leader, and that any attempt to make cheap development will eventually lead to a failure of negotiations.

China and India clearly oppose the US's selective reopening of negotiations on some issues.

The EU also reminds the United States that when asking other members to further open the market, the price should be realistic.

According to WTO rules, the volume of trade among the top 4 members of the world - the United States, China, the European Union and Japan - will receive a trade policy review every two years, and the deliberations period of other members will be lengthened in accordance with their trade ranking.