Misreading China’s WTO record hurts global trade

PHOTO: Reuters

THE 20th anniversary of China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation on Dec 11 once again highlighted long-standing debates about how well China has lived up to its WTO obligations, and whether any deviation from its commitments boosts or slows its economic growth. This discussion affects many countries’ views on whether the current global trading system should be built up or pulled down.

Former US President Donald Trump was bent on pulling down the WTO, by rendering inoperative its dispute-adjudication system and launching trade wars that the body ruled illegal. And his successor, Joe Biden, has so far done little to improve the WTO’s functioning. The United States claims that China routinely violates its WTO obligations, and that the body is ineffectual at changing Chinese behavior. But the data do not support such assertions, and the misperception that this narrative has created is hurting the global trading system.