US and China clash at WTO meeting

Chinese and US officials at a meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 27 fiercely criticized each other.

Reuters news agency reported that China's representative at the WTO, Li Chenggang, criticized the US over the trade dispute after Washington filed appeals against a series of WTO rulings involving China, Turkey, Norway and Switzerland, because these countries previously said that US metal tariffs broke many global rules.

Illustration photo. Photo: Reuters

“These worrying actions by the US show that they are a unilateral bully, a rule-breaker and a supply chain breaker,” Mr. Li said harshly at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the US representative to the WTO, Maria Pagan, said that the US regretted that the dispute over metals tariffs with China appeared on the agenda at the meeting, and accused Beijing of imposing many illegal unilateral retaliatory measures against US exports.

“A WTO that serves to protect China’s ‘non-market’ policies and practices would benefit no one,” Pagan said.

The WTO has issued several major rulings against the United States in recent weeks, including a ruling on metals related to China and a separate dispute between the United States and Hong Kong, according to Reuters. The Washington administration later protested both of those rulings.