American trade bullying staged a new farce, breaking the rules and causing dissatisfaction in many countries.
CCTV News:Recently, at the meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization held in Geneva, Switzerland, the United States was convicted of violating WTO rules, but instead, the United States used the arbitration institution to "shut down" to appeal and tried to shelve the execution of the ruling indefinitely, which was severely denounced by many WTO members.
At the closed meeting held on January 27th, five members, namely China, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and Hong Kong, China, set eight topics, demanding that the plenary session adopt five rulings of the expert group on the violation of the new regulations on the origin marking of Hong Kong goods imposed by the United States on imported steel and aluminum products under Article 232, and demanding that the United States cancel the illegal measures. The United States appealed all five rulings before the meeting.
But in fact, since 2019, the United States has repeatedly unilaterally obstructed the selection of judges of the WTO Appellate Body, and the WTO Appellate Body has fallen into a state of complete paralysis after the expiration of the previous judge in November 2020.
According to the minutes of the meeting published by the WTO, the permanent representative of the European Union to the WTO said at the meeting that the WTO arbitration institution was "paralyzed" because of deliberate sabotage by the United States, and it was impossible to hear these appeals at present, and the United States was actually abusing its right of appeal. Abuse of the right of appeal does not help to resolve trade disputes.
The Permanent Representative of Canada to the WTO said at the meeting that all parties to trade disputes must make every effort to find acceptable solutions and fulfill their good faith commitments under the Understanding on Dispute Settlement Rules and Procedures. The suspension of the Appellate Body has brought unfairness and short-term advantages to some members.
The Permanent Representative of China to the WTO said that it seems that the United States will refuse to implement any unfavorable ruling involving "national security exception", which violates the principle of "pacta sunt servanda". These disturbing behaviors in the United States clearly depict the image of the implementer of unilateral bullying, the destroyer of multilateral trading system and the disruptor of global industrial chain supply chain.
What is the ruling of the United States to appeal this time? In December 2022, the WTO released the report of the expert group on the dispute settlement mechanism, ruling that the measures taken by the United States to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum products in 2018 violated WTO rules and suggested that the United States should correct them. In March 2018, then US President Trump imposed tariffs of 25% and 10% on imported steel and aluminum products on the grounds of safeguarding national security according to Article 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962. This decision not only led the countries concerned to file a complaint with the WTO, but also the major trading partners of the United States introduced retaliatory measures. In November 2018, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body agreed to set up an expert group to review the steel and aluminum tariff measures announced by the United States to confirm whether the measures violated WTO rules. It was not until last December that the expert group of WTO dispute settlement mechanism issued its ruling.
The unilateral trade bullying behavior of the United States has aroused more and more opposition around the world. Some media commented that the United States has now become the biggest destroyer of the international trading system.
Headquarters reporter Yi Xin:For a long time, the United States has been waving a trade stick at other WTO members on the grounds of "national security" and frequently violated WTO rules. The research report on WTO dispute adjudication shows that by far, the United States is the most "unruly", and two-thirds of WTO violations are caused by the United States. When the WTO expert group ruled that the United States violated the rules, the United States took advantage of the current deadlock in the appointment of members of the WTO Appellate Body to appeal the ruling, so as to evade its obligations. The WTO Appellate Body’s "shutdown" and the paralysis of multilateral trade arbitration institutions are precisely caused by the United States’ insistence on obstructing the selection of judges despite the opposition of more than 100 WTO members. At the US trade policy review meeting held by the WTO in December last year, many WTO members expressed serious concern and dissatisfaction with the US trade policy.
Convicted of violating WTO rules, instead of executing the ruling, the United States appealed by using the "shutdown" of the appellate body, trying to put the execution of the ruling on hold indefinitely.
As an arbitration institution for trade dispute settlement, the Appellate Body is known as the "jewel in the crown of WTO" and it is an important part of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. It has seven permanent seats for judges, each of whom has a term of four years and can be re-elected once. According to the WTO, cases of trade disputes must be tried and decided jointly by three judges. If the number of judges is insufficient, they can’t accept any new cases, and they will fall into a state of "stopping".
One of the most prominent features of the Appellate Body of WTO is its independence. Under this mechanism, all 164 WTO members, regardless of their size, can obtain equal rights to appeal or defend themselves. However, it seems that the United States has always regarded itself as an exception and repeatedly abused the "one-vote veto" to arbitrarily obstruct the start of the selection process for new judges of the Appellate Body.
Since 2017, the United States has frequently blocked the start of the selection process for new judges of the WTO Appellate Body.
In 2017, three of the seven judges of the Appellate Body ended their terms, but the United States has always blocked the appointment of new judges. Counting this time, in the past two years, the United States has said no to the selection of new judges for 30 consecutive times.
In 2018, the United States vetoed the appointment of Mauritian judges for a second term by one vote, leaving only three judges in the WTO Appellate Body. Three people are also the bottom line for the appellate body to operate. In order to avoid the "lockout", in that year, 67 WTO members demanded that "the selection process for new judges of the Appellate Body should be started as soon as possible". However, the United States rejected this proposal.
In November 2019, at the regular meeting of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body, 117 WTO members once again suggested that the process of selecting new judges of the Appellate Body should be started immediately, which showed the strong political will of most members to restore the Appellate Body. However, the United States is still bent on its own way.
On December 9, 2019, the United States once again unilaterally obstructed, resulting in a draft resolution on the reform of the Appellate Body not being passed, and the selection of new judges was once again blocked.
Due to the inability to select new judges in time, from December 11, 2019, only one judge of the Appellate Body was in office, and the Appellate Body was in a state of "stopping".
On November 30, 2020, the last member of the Appellate Body officially expired. At this point, all members of the Appellate Body have left their posts.
What is the core reason for the United States to do so in the face of non-implementation of WTO rulings, non-compliance with rules and deliberate sabotage? What kind of bad influence will it have? Let’s listen to the interpretation of special commentator Su Xiaohui.
Su Xiaohui, a special commentator, said that many countries see that the United States has a kind of "double standard" behavior towards rules, and they will use it if they agree, and abandon it if they disagree. At the same time, they will try their best to safeguard American hegemony by taking the leading role in rule-making and use American bullying in trade. This kind of behavior interferes with the development of the world economy and harms others, which is also the fundamental factor behind everyone’s rebound against the United States.