US-China clash at WTO, highlighting divisions ahead of Antony Blinken visit

China rebuked the US for unilateralism, breaking trade rules and disrupting global supply chains at a recent World Trade Organization meeting

The criticism comes ahead of a visit to China by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a possible trip by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen later this year

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China’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Li Chenggang, criticised the US for bullying and protectionism. Photo: Handout

Published: 7:50pm, 30 Jan 2023

China has stepped up accusations that the United States is breaking trade rules and bullying other countries, signalling potentially tense negotiations when the US Secretary of State visits next month.

The criticism was levelled by China’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday, when the Geneva-based organisation reviewed disputes including several cases launched against the US.

The rebuke by Li Chenggang shows the division between the world’s two largest economies is still large, despite hopes of a thaw after it was announced that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken would visit China in February, while a team of US Treasury officials led by Janet Yellen could also make a trip to Beijing.

At the WTO meeting, Li rebuked the US for its unilateralism, breaking international trade rules and disrupting global supply chains, according to the state-owned Xinhua News Agency.

On Monday, Xinhua blasted the Biden administration for justifying protectionism with national security laws, adding its WTO appeals would meet a dead end and only trigger “public anger”.

The US is the biggest violator of international trade rules, accounting for about two thirds of WTO disputes, Xinhua said, and it was responsible for paralysing the organisation’s dispute settlement mechanism in 2019.

“Although there is little chance for bilateral issues to be addressed in the multilateral mechanism, China will not give up presenting its perspectives in such occasions and it will try to obtain an initiative in winning international support,” said Lu Xiang, an expert on US-China relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a Beijing-based governmental think tank.

China’s Ministry of Commerce has lodged WTO complaints against a US request that Hong Kong products be labelled as “Made in China”, and Washington’s anti-dumping measures on Chinese steel and aluminium products.