China’s Ministry of Commerce recently released a new report on WTO Compliance of the United States, pointing out that over the past year the U.S. has continuously upgraded unilateral sanctions, frequently implemented discriminatory measures, and raised tariff barriers, posing severe challenges to the multilateral trading system. CGTN conducted a survey around the world, showing that 90.53 percent of the respondents criticize a series of unilateralism and trade protection measures taken by the U.S. government, believing that it is a serious violation of WTO rules.
Although the WTO has explicitly concluded that the U.S. Section 301 tariff measures violate WTO rules, the U.S. keeps flouting the WTO rules and persists in taking unilateral actions. In April 2024, the U.S. initiated a Section 301 investigation against China’s maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries. In the survey, 94.31 percent of the respondents criticize the U.S. for its lack of respect for WTO rules.
As of May 2024, the U.S., for 76 consecutive times, had rejected proposals from other members to launch the selection of Appellate Body members at the regular meetings of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body. Even though 130 WTO members explicitly support the early launch of this process, the U.S. still refuses to join the consensus under the excuse of unresolved institutional concerns. In the survey, 94.12 percent of respondents believe that the U.S. puts its own interests above the WTO, ignores or even undermines the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, and seriously hinders the normal operation of the WTO.
In the 29 years since the establishment of the WTO, the U.S. has been a respondent in 159 disputes, including 28 compliance disputes, accounting for approximately 18 percent. In the view of 95.45 percent of the respondents, the U.S.’ selective implementation of WTO rulings is a typical “American style double-standard.”
A total of 2,868 entities from 91 countries and regions around the world had been listed in the Entity List as of May 2024. The U.S. has become the world’s largest issuer of unilateral sanctions. According to the poll, 91.55 percent of respondents believe that the U.S.’ arbitrary unilateral sanctions have seriously damaged the security of global industrial and supply chains, and 95.24 percent of respondents criticize the U.S. for abusing the concept of national security to engage in unilateral bullying.
The United States, which has always pursued a market economy, has more and more applied a “double standard” in its industrial policy: on the one hand, it distorts the global market by providing large-scale subsidies in violation of WTO rules, and on the other hand, it hypes up the so-called “overcapacity” and criticizes other countries’ reasonable policies. In this regard, 87.2 percent of the respondents criticize the unreasonable subsidy policy implemented by the U.S. side for a long time and believe it seriously violated the principle of fair competition, and 85.82 percent of the respondents call on the U.S. to make more positive contributions to the establishment of a more fair and reasonable international trade order.
The poll was released on CGTN’s English, Spanish, French and Arabic platforms. More than 6,000 respondents voted and expressed their views within 24 hours.
(Cover via CFP)
