Tuesday, May 29, 2018

US Finally Gets WTO Cases with China

It takes forever, and the Chinese know it, to get a case before the WTO, but the US has two now.  The first one, and the most obvious to everyone who follows China, is the theft of intellectual property being forced by ownership, control and management policies of China.  Reuters has a good story on the ones currently there.  It quotes Dennis Shea, the Ambassador to WTO as saying “Fundamentally, China has made the decision to engage in a systematic, state-directed, and non-market pursuit of other (WTO) members’ cutting-edge technology in service of China’s industrial policy.”  Yes, we knew that, but it doesn’t hurt to say it out loud now and again, mostly for the benefit of other countries who seem to sit on the sidelines and accept this extortion (the US called it coerison) with a smile.  Some US businesses do the same thing.  

With this action, the US gets a hearing on the main issue of whether it can enforce tariffs on Chinese goods.  One has to wonder why there was not a case before this, since even a high school student knew what China was doing.  China usually settles these kinds of cases before they get to arbitration, but maybe they will let this one run its course, thinking it is all part of the negotiation strategy of the US.  They may get a surprise this time.  


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