(Economic Watch) The 6th largest trade retaliation award in history, why did China win the case against the United States?
China News Service, Beijing, January 27 (Reporter Wang Enbo) On January 26, local time, the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced that China won the countervailing case against the United States (case number: DS437).
The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body (hereinafter referred to as "DSB") made the sixth-largest trade retaliation ruling in its history, finding that China can impose $645 million in trade retaliation against the United States each year in the field of trade in goods.
The case is China suing the United States to impose countervailing measures against China's oil well pipes and other products in violation of the WTO Covered Agreement. It has undergone all procedures for nearly 10 years, including the trial of the original panel, the appeal of the original instance, the reasonable execution period arbitration, the enforcement lawsuit, and the enforcement. Procedures such as appeals, trade retaliation level arbitrations, etc., are the most complete cases that China has experienced in the WTO dispute settlement procedure.
Authoritative experts pointed out to the reporter of China News Agency that China's victory in this case has effectively curbed the abuse of trade remedy measures.
In recent years, many countries such as the United States and the European Union have abused trade remedy measures to restrict the import of products from China.
According to Zhang Yuejiao, Dean of the Institute of International Dispute Settlement at Tsinghua University, former Chairman of the WTO Appellate Body and Judge Zhang Yuejiao, from 2010 to 2020, 759 anti-dumping investigations, 159 anti-subsidy investigations and 202 safeguard measures investigations were launched against China worldwide.
Among them, the United States initiated 87 anti-dumping investigations, 81 anti-subsidy investigations and 3 safeguard measures investigations against China.
"Regardless of the results of the investigation, the protracted investigation has caused the Chinese exporters of the product to encounter market warnings and even lose the international market." Zhang Yuejiao mentioned that especially the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations against China by importing countries such as the United States and the European Union violated the WTO Covered Agreement.
For example, in the anti-subsidy investigation, Chinese state-owned enterprises are regarded as "public institutions", and the use of external benchmarks to determine the amount of subsidies on the grounds of "government interference in the market" violates WTO rules.
Shi Jingxia, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, said that this case is an important part of a series of cases where China uses WTO rules to challenge the abuse of trade remedies by the United States.
The successful outcome of this case has effectively refuted the US accusation of China's "non-market orientation", and once again showed the world that the US is a destroyer of multilateral rules, and has a positive impact on correcting US violations of anti-subsidy practices, safeguarding the legitimate trade interests of Chinese companies, and defending the multilateral trading system. Significance.
It is worth noting that the WTO arbitral tribunal issued a ruling, finding that China can impose trade retaliation against the US in the field of trade in goods of US$645 million per year.
张月姣分析称，经过WTO专家组和上诉机构两级审理的最终裁决对于争议当事方具有法律约束力，败诉方必须执行裁决。如果败诉方在合理期限内未执行WTO裁决，申诉方可以申请执行程序并依据申诉方损失通过仲裁确定的向败诉方执行的报复金额。“这被外界誉为WTO争议解决机制‘有牙齿’，对于制止违反WTO涵盖协议的措施具有杀伤力。”
石静霞表示，此报复权利需向WTO争端解决机构申请后方可实施。但该裁决表明，美方长期以来违反世贸规则、滥用贸易救济措施，拒不履行世贸组织裁决，损害了公平公正的国际贸易环境。中方应密切关注美方后续执行措施，保留采取进一步行动的权利，包括向WTO争端解决机制申请实施授权范围内的报复金额，以维护多边贸易体制权威性。
从滥用反补贴措施，到对华加征关税，近年来美方在中美经贸关系中采取了一系列保护主义做法。尽管如此，2021年中美贸易总额依然创下历史新高。
张月姣指出，多年来，一些国家采用歧视性贸易救济措施，给中国企业冠予“非市场经济”“政府干扰市场”的大帽子，对中国商品采取歧视性的替代国价格、目标反倾销、用归零计算倾销幅度，将中国国有企业视为“公共机构”认定为补贴，用外部基准计算补贴金额，因此对中国进口商品征收很高的反倾销税和反补贴税，限制中国商品出口，筑成了新的关税贸易壁垒。
石静霞认为，在全球抗击新冠疫情努力中，中美贸易额2021年创下历史新高凸显双方经济高度依存性。事实上，美国对华加征关税的绝大部分成本最后转嫁到美国消费者身上，且高额关税更提高了美国通胀。美国多个商业协会屡次敦促美政府扩大自中国进口的关税豁免范围。“经贸关系一直是中美关系的压舱石和助推器。在中美经贸关系中，美方应停止其错误做法，放弃单边主义和贸易保护主义措施，通过双方平等互利磋商，找到合作共赢的解决办法。”(完)