At a Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) meeting at WTO on Friday, Chinese ambassador to WTO Li Chenggang accused (Zh) the U.S. of being “a unilateral bully, a rule breaker, and a supply chain disruptor.” The criticism followed Washington’s appeal against recent WTO rulings
regarding U.S.’s steel and aluminum tariffs on China, Norway,
Switzerland, and Turkey. "China would have hoped that the U.S. would
show due self-restraint not to appeal every unfavorable panel report
into the void, which the U.S. itself has created," Li said.
However,
the trade body will not be able to review the appeal until new judges
are appointed to the Appellate Body. The top appeals bench of the WTO
has been left in limbo after the U.S. repeatedly blocked appointments to it.
The four economies and Hong Kong asked the plenary to pass the above rulings and another
on U.S. origin marking requirement on Hong Kong. Deputy U.S. Trade
Representative Maria Pagan fought back at the meeting, opposing the
inclusion of the metal tariff dispute on the WTO agenda. She accused
Beijing of imposing "illegal unilateral retaliatory measures" against
U.S. exports. "A WTO that serves to shield China's non-market policies
and practices is not in anyone's interest," Pagan said.
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