WTO chief warns EU, Japan, US not to ‘target’ China using trade reform

Name: Beijing hits back at Western sanctions against China’s alleged treatment of Uygur Muslims
Uploaded: 2021-04-27T10:34:45.000Z
Duration: 3 min 36 s
Description: Beijing hits back at Western sanctions against China’s alleged treatment of Uygur Muslims

When China feels targeted, rival powers will meet resistance on matters such as subsidies, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, World Trade Organization director general, says

Headway is possible by addressing concerns from all sides about trade practices rather than using trade to solve non-trade problems, she tells EU event

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If China is singled out by other nations, it is unlikely to make concessions, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, head of the World Trade Organization, said. Photo: Reuters

Finbarr Bermingham

Published: 6:34pm, 27 Apr 2021Updated: 7:53pm, 27 Apr 2021

As some of the world’s most powerful economies look to tighten up global trading rules to deal with Beijing, the head of the World Trade Organization has warned that they “have to show China is not being targeted”, or reform plans will face “a lot of resistance”.

The European Union, Japan and the United States are among the world powers pushing for stronger rules on industrial subsidies at the WTO, as well as more transparency on the role state-owned enterprises play in economies.

The EU is next month set to publish a white paper on subsidies, while it, Japan and the US are building on a trilateral statement on the issue last year that was seen as a thinly veiled attack on Beijing’s industrial policies.

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Beijing hits back at Western sanctions against China’s alleged treatment of Uygur Muslims

“We share concerns over distortions to world trade caused, for example, by the socioeconomic model of China, distortions to the level playing field, like industrial subsidies and transparency on industrial subsidies,” Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU trade commissioner, told attendees of the bloc’s Trade Policy Day on Monday.

However, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the WTO’s new director general, warned that targeting China directly would be counterproductive, because as a WTO member – and a powerful one at that – China would need to buy into any reform for it to pass.

“We have to show that China is not being targeted,” Okonjo-Iweala said at the event. “I’ll just be very open, that when China feels it’s being targeted and it’s only about China, then you get a lot of resistance.

“But if we were to present this in an appropriate fashion with facts on the table so that China can see the impact of its policies, [and] they can also see us try to do something about other types of subsidies, I think we’ll make some headway.

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