Los Angeles, CA – China is coming under harsh criticism from the World Trade Organization with members of the 160-nation body asserting that Beijing has failed to live up to key transparency commitments it made when it joined the organization in 2001.
The WTO Secretariat recently released the results of a critical 200-page report on China’s trade policy which concluded that, over the past two years, the country continues to exhibit a lack of clarity, organization and centralization of its trade rules and regulations.
EU ambassador Angelos Pangratis described the lack of clarity on trade issues as “striking,” while Canada’s representative also criticized the “often vague and insufficent information available” from Beijing.
Release of the report came during the WTO’s recent, bi-annual policy review held at the group’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Many of the 50 WTO members who took part in the review also criticized Beijing’s use of export restraints and taxes, restrictions on foreign investments and said it must improve protection for intellectual property rights (IPR).
The US Representative to the WTO, Christopher Wilson, said that China’s “apparently retaliatory conduct” in its use of duties, and said the country appeared to ignore a number of WTO findings against it.”
Wilson added, “An enormous amount of work remains if China is to close significant loopholes in its legal framework and reduce the unacceptably high IPR infringement levels.”
Responding to the WTO report, China’s Assistant Minister of Commerce, Wang Shouwen said its findings were “baseless” and that China “has one of the best track records of implementing WTO rulings.”
But, he added, though China “has made great strides to address these issues…it has pledged to do more to improve transparency.”
07/30/2014
