Free Republic

The United States is not doing enough to promote free trade and the elimination of trade barriers around the world. In fact, it’s doing just the opposite and imposing barriers on billions of dollars’ worth of imports. As a result, new trade restrictions implemented by World Trade Organization member countries have reached historic highs. Over the last two review periods, new trade restrictions totaled $588.3 billion and $339.5 billion, respectively. For the previous two periods, new trade restrictions totaled roughly $100 billion or less. The latest figures present a worrisome and unpredictable climate that is harming the overall health of...

MEMORANDUM FOR THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE SUBJECT: Reforming Developing-Country Status in the World Trade Organization By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby directed as follows: Section 1. Policy. The World Trade Organization (WTO) was created to spur economic growth and raise standards of living by establishing international trade rules premised on principles of transparency, openness, and predictability. Although economic tides have risen worldwide since the WTO’s inception in 1995, the WTO continues to rest on an outdated dichotomy between developed and developing countries...

President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to withdraw recognition of the special "developing nation" status of China and other relatively rich countries at the World Trade Organization unless changes are made to the body's rules. The global trade body uses "an outdated dichotomy between developed and developing countries that has allowed some WTO members to gain unfair advantages," Trump said in a statement. Without "substantial progress" to reform WTO rules within 90 days, Washington will no longer treat as a developing country any WTO member "improperly declaring itself a developing country and inappropriately seeking the benefit of flexibilities in WTO...

President Trump’s barrage of tariffs could blow up our economy in a way not seen since Congress passed the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. We know how that ended. It took World War II to get us out of the worst depression our nation ever faced.The analogies between then and now are striking. Overwhelmingly, economists opposed the tariffs in 1930. Today, Peter Navarro, who serves in the White House, is the only economist I know of who thinks tariffs are a good idea. And last week he suggested we pull out of the World Trade Organization (WTO), despite the fact the...

The American/China Chamber of Commerce found that 82 percent of American-owned manufacturers in China are suffering significant pain from Trump Trade War tariffs. ‘AmCham’ surveyed business conditions for its 900 member American-owned companies operating across China during the week of May 16-20, following President Trump’s announcement that he was raising tariffs on $200 billion U.S. imports from  China from 10 percent to 25 percent. The survey found that due to the U.S. action and the retaliatory Chinese response, American-owned companies in China reported that 52.1 percent were experiencing lower demand; 42.4 percent were experiencing higher manufacturing costs and 38.2...

There’s a term called “zeroing” at the heart of this World Trade Organization decision that supports President Trump, Secretary Ross and USTR Lighthizer. When an industry product like Canadian softwood lumber is shipped into the U.S. for sale at a lower price than exists in Canada, the U.S. Commerce department calls that “dumping“. If the Canadian product is the same or higher in the U.S. as it is in Canada there is no dumping. No dumping is a “zero” or normal price differential; hence “zeroing”.

Russia won a dispute about “national security” at the World Trade Organization on Friday, in a ruling over a Ukrainian railway dispute that may also lend support to global automobile tariffs that could be imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. The WTO panel ruling, the first ever on the right to a national security exemption from the global trade rules, can be appealed. The panel also confirmed the WTO’s right to review national security claims, denting U.S. claims that national security was not subject to review by the global trade body. The panel also confirmed the WTO’s right to review...

China will refuse to give up the “special and differential treatment” it enjoys as a developing nation at the World Trade Organisation, in a rebuke to a US proposal that would pare back the privileges China and other nations enjoy on trade...

For the last decade, the U.S. has pursued a case before the World Trade Organization (WTO) against illegal subsidies provided to Airbus by four European governments, which have given the European plane maker an unfair advantage in the global market. With government help, Airbus has captured 50% of the global commercial airplane market . The European Union has used delay and stall tactics to continue evading global trade rules by filing their own cases against the United States and ignoring WTO compliance rulings against their illegal practices. They’ve lost badly at every twist and turn, and now it’s time for...

Leaders of the Group of 20 (G-20) nations on Saturday signed off on a final statement pledging to fix the world trading system, with all but President Trump also expressing support for the Paris climate agreement. The statement finalized after the two-day summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, calls for reforming the World Trade Organization but does not mention protectionism because the U.S. resisted those discussions, according to The Associated Press.

US President Donald Trump said in an interview on Thursday that he was thinking about pulling the United States out of the World Trade Organization if “they don’t shape up.” Speaking with Bloomberg News, Trump said that the WTO had treated the US “very badly.” The president has often complained that the United States is treated unfairly in global trade, and has blamed the WTO for allowing that to happen. This coincides with several nations threatening to take legal action against the US through the WTO over the White House’s trade wars. The US and Russia have also launched competing...

China’s assistant commerce minister said on Wednesday that the latest proposed tariffs from the United States harms the World Trade Organization system and hurts globalization. […] The Ministry of Commerce’s Li Chenggang said the only correct choice for China-U.S. relations was cooperation. …

China is putting pressure on the European Union to issue a strong joint statement against President Donald Trump’s trade policies at a summit later this month but is facing resistance, European officials said. In meetings in Brussels, Berlin and Beijing, senior Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Liu He and the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, have proposed an alliance between the two economic powers and offered to open more of the Chinese market in a gesture of goodwill. One proposal has been for China and the European Union to launch joint action against the United States at...

A leaked copy of draft Trump administration legislation shows that the U.S. would abandon fundamental rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), according to Axios, which obtained the copy of the bill. The United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act would reportedly provide President Trump with the authority to ignore two monumental principles of the WTO and take part in bilateral negotiations with any country. According to Axios, the legislation shows the abandonment of the "Most Favored Nation" (MFN) principle, which says that countries are not allowed to set different tariff rates for different countries outside of free trade agreements....

A leading German think tank says Donald Trump is right that tariffs between the United States and Europe are asymmetrical, but urges negotiations to lower import taxes across the board. US President Donald Trump may actually have a point when it comes to unfair taxes on US goods coming into Europe. That is the finding of a new study by a leading German think tank. Where they differ is how to deal with it: The group urges new talks to lower tariffs across the board, instead of engaging in a tit-for-tat escalation in new taxes. “The EU is by no...

Russia filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against duties imposed by the United States on steel and aluminum. Russia also requested consultations with the United States in the framework of the WTO dispute settlement procedure, Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin said on Friday. Oreshkin added that, in addition to Russia, China, India, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, and Norway had earlier filed complaints against the United States with the WTO.

The president’s top economic adviser on Wednesday implied that the U.S. may not abide by any rulings from the World Trade Organization (WTO), a tough signal ahead of a Group of Seven summit this weekend where Trump is expected to face a backlash from allied leaders over his protectionist trade agenda. “International, multilateral organizations are not going to determine American policy,” White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters at a press briefing organized to preview President Trump’s trip to Canada for the G-7. The comments paint an unyielding stance on trade as the president prepares to meet...

Canada filed a challenge to the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum with the World Trade Organization on Friday and said it will request a Chapter 20 panel under the North American Free Trade Agreement on Friday in response to the U.S. move. "These unilateral tariffs, imposed under a false pretext of safeguarding U.S. national security, are inconsistent with the United States international trade obligations and WTO rules," Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement. "Canada will closely collaborate with the European Union, which also filed a WTO challenge today, as well as with other like-minded countries, on opposing...

The headlines on most financial publications claim the United States and our current administration is lighting the fuse to a trade war. The first shot across the bow came many years ago when China joined the World Trade Organization and its central and provincial governments began subsidizing manufacturing and production of goods in high volumes thus leaving manufacturing sectors in the west at a disadvantage. President Donald Trump vowed to remember those who were forgotten in the last 10 years and to make changes in policy. (please see link, for full article)

Washington D.C. [USA], Mar 24 (ANI): The United States on Friday officially filed a trade complaint at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against China over its alleged discriminatory technology licensing practices. (please see full article at link)