China on Friday secured the green signal from an arbitrator at the World Trade Organization to slap retaliatory duties worth $ 3.579 billion annually on the American goods. The WTO’s Arbitrator’s decision came after the US failed to implement the trade body’s recommendations against several aspect of the US anti-dumping methodologies used in the investigations involving Chinese products.
Washington was required to implement the WTO’s recommendations against the controversial US’ anti-dumping methodologies used in anti-dumping investigations against Chinese products by 22 August 2018. But, the US has failed to implement the recommendations until now.
China has demanded the arbitrator to allow Beijing to impose $ 7.043 billion annually based on the “level of nullification or impairment" that it had suffered because of the US’ anti-dumping methodologies. But the Arbitrator rejected the Chinese demand and concluded that China can only impose retaliatory duties up to $ 3.579 billion annually on American goods.
China can now ask the WTO’s dispute settlement body for authorization to slap retaliatory tariffs om imported American goods valued up to the annual amout fixed by arbitrator.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that China and the U.S. are in the process of selecting a new site to sign what he has called phase one of a broader trade agreement between the two countries. Even as the two sides are closing in on an the major bilateral trade agreement, the two sides continued to spar over a range of issues at the WTO.
Earlier, the US President want to sign the deal with China during a November summit of nations from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group in Chile. But Chilean President Sebastian Piñera announced on Wednesday cancelled the meeting because of continued backlash against his government’s economic policies.
Against this backdrop, President Trump tweeted on Thursday that “the new location will be announced soon." He claimed “President Xi and President Trump will do signing!"
The US and Chinese negotiators are negotiating to conclude the phase one deal, which was agreed to in principle last month. The deal will include substantial purchases of American farm products, including pork and soybeans. It will also cover some aspects concerning improvements in intellectual property rights and provisions aimed at stopping currency manipulation.
However, the deal is well short of addressing any of the structural changes that the US had demanded in the Chinese trade policy regime, especially the elimination of subsidies to the state-owned enterprises. China also demanded that all security-related sanctions against Chinese telecom company Huawei and other Chinese chip-makers be removed for a larger trade agreement.
