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TWN
Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Oct23/02) Geneva, 29 Sep (D. Ravi Kanth) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has issued a call on the ongoing efforts to reform the World Trade Organization, emphasizing that the multilateral, inter-governmental trade body is an “important pillar of multilateralism and an important forum for global economic governance”, in what appears to be a counter to the growing tendencies of trade fragmentation and “hollowing out” of the core functions of the 164-member trade body, said people familiar with the development. During a group study of China’s Political Bureau of the Central Committee on “WTO Rules and the WTO Reform” on 27 September, President Xi apparently said that “it is widely acknowledged that the WTO needs necessary reform and momentums are gathering for such necessary reform of the WTO.” Underscoring the importance of proactive engagement in the reform of the WTO, President Xi apparently urged “efforts and comprehensive participation in WTO reforms and the re-adjustments of international economic and trade rules.” According to a statement released by China’s mission to the WTO, the Chinese President said that “historical changes have taken place in the relationship between China and the WTO,” noting that China “has crossed the stairs of a passive recipient of and an active adapter to international economic and trade rules, to become an important participant in the rule-making.” Against this backdrop, President Xi drove home a strong message for “firmly upholding the authority and efficacy of the multilateral trading system with the WTO at the core, and actively promoting the restoration of the normal operation of the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism.” President Xi also emphasized “improving and further developing China’ proposals for broad-based and in-depth participation in WTO reform, upholding the vision of a global community of shared future, as well as firmly safeguarding the legitimate interests of all developing countries including China.” CHANGING TIMES Interestingly, President Xi’s remarks come at a time when the United States, which helped to create the two-stage dispute settlement system, with the Appellate Body as the final adjudicator for resolving global trade disputes, seems opposed to restoring the Appellate Body to its original status. The US has made the Appellate Body dysfunctional since December 2019 when it repeatedly blocked the selection process for appointments to the Appellate Body. In her remarks at the Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies on 22 September, the US Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai did not mince words about the Appellate Body, when she said, as regards the dispute settlement system, “the [goal] here is not restoring the Appellate Body or going back to the way things used to be.” However, many developing countries, particularly the expanded BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and six new members – Ethiopia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Argentina) have called for the restoration of the two-tier dispute settlement system, particularly the Appellate Body. At a time when one of the original leaders of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was later replaced by the WTO, is seemingly minimizing its role in the trade body in pursuing security-driven trade alliances, China appears to be filling the vacuum by taking up the leadership role, said a trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted. +
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