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China pulls WTO suit over claim to be a market economy
Reuters By Tom
Miles,Reuters Mon, Jun 17 3:26 AM PDT
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GENEVA (Reuters) - China has halted a dispute at the World
Trade Organization over its claim to be a market economy, a panel of three WTO
adjudicators said on Monday, meaning Beijing must accept continued EU and U.S.
"anti-dumping" levies on cheap Chinese goods.
One trade official close to the case said so much of the ruling
had gone against Beijing that it had opted to pull the plug before the result
became official.
"They lost so much that they didn't even want the world
to see the panel's reasoning," the official said.
Without a WTO ruling in Beijing's favor, the EU and United
States can keep imposing duties on cheap imports from China while disregarding
its claim that they are fairly priced.
China had insisted that they treat it
as a "market economy", countering their view that the price of
Chinese exports could not be taken at face value due to state interference in
the economy.
It took legal action saying that under its 2001 WTO
membership terms it must be recognized as a "market economy" after 15
years.
"China believes that there can be no other plausible
reading of this simple and unambiguous treaty language," China's WTO
ambassador Zhang Xiangchen said at a WTO hearing in 2017, calling the text
"crystal clear".
But the United States and the EU disagreed. They said
Chinese goods -- especially commodities such as steel and aluminium -- were
still heavily under-priced because of subsidies and state-backed oversupply,
giving Chinese exporters an unfair advantage.
The row had become an explosive issue for the United States,
with President Donald Trump threatening to quit the WTO if the organisation did
not "shape up".
Chinese, EU and U.S. officials did not immediately comment
on the suspension.
Beijing launched disputes against Brussels and Washington at
the WTO in December 2016. It only pursued the case against the EU, but asked to
suspend legal proceedings on May 7, the panel said.
After an EU request to take certain considerations into
account, China reiterated its request to suspend legal proceedings. The panel
accepted and halted the case on Friday.
The official said China was on course to lose the bulk of
the case, with only some minor points going in its favour.
"They were going to win something, but it was
overshadowed by the huge defeat that they had on the main claim."
(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and
Hugh Lawson)
Translation
雅虎財經
一位接近此案的貿易官員表示，因有如此多的決定是針對着北京方面，在裁決結果公佈前它已選擇停止案件繼續。
“他們失去了太多，他們甚至不希望世界看到小組的論証，”這位官員說。
如果沒有世貿組織對北京有利的裁決，歐盟和美國可以繼續對來自中國的廉價進口產品徵收關稅，同時無視其聲稱價格合理的說法。
中國堅稱他們使用“市場經濟” 處理，反對由於中國對經濟的干預，就說中國出口產品價格不能按表面價格計算的觀點。
中國在採取法律行動中說，根據其2001年世貿組織成員資格條款，它必可以在15年後被承認為“市場經濟”。
“中國認為，沒有其他方法可以合理地解讀這種簡單明確的條約語言，”中國的世界貿易組織大使張向晨在2017年的世界貿易組織聽證會上表示，該成員資格文本“清晰”。
但美國和歐盟不同意。他們表示，由於補貼和國家支持的供過於求，中國商品
- 特別是鋼鐵和鋁等商品
- 的價格仍被嚴重抑制，這給中國出口商帶來了不公平的優勢。
對於美國而言，這一行已成為一個爆炸性的問題，如果該組織不“重组”，總統唐納德特朗普就有可能退出世貿組織。
中國，歐盟和美國官員沒有立即對此次暫停訴訟程序發表評論。
2016年12月，北京在世界貿易組織發起了針對布魯塞爾和華盛頓的爭端。該案僅針對歐盟提起訴訟，但在5月7日要求世界貿易組織小組暫停訴訟程序。
該官員表示，中國在大部分案件中受挫败，只有一些小問題對其有利。
“他們會贏得一些東西，但相對他們在主要要求的巨大挫败是黯然失色。”
Comments
It is unbelievable that mainland China has a market economy.
I think this topic is one of the focus of the present trade war between the US
and China. China is at a cross road on economy reforms.
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