China’s ambassador to WTO, Zhang Xiangchen said that “the US is blocking selection of new Appellate Body members, taking restrictive trade measures under Section 232 and threatening to impose tariff measures of US$50 billion of goods imports from China under Section 301 of US domestic law.” And, he warned “any one of these, if left untreated, will fatally undermine the functioning of the WTO.”
The US was reported to have requested China to cut its trade surplus with it by USD 200b by 2020. Zhang criticized that “such practices clearly violate the non-discrimination principle of the GATT, therefore have long been abandoned” by the WTO.
And he pointed out the contradiction in what the US is trying to do. He said “the US is blaming the Chinese Government for state intervention on the one hand, while pressing China, by way of issuing government orders, to increase imports, restrict exports, and reduce excess capacity on the other hand.” Also, “governments can make efforts to promote trade, but cannot force companies to do business by pointing gun at their heads.”
