Supporting WTO for fair trade, cooperation

This is an editorial from China Daily.

It is the World Trade Organization that is responsible for maintaining fair trade, and in playing this role, it has made it possible for emerging economies to have opportunities for development.

However, the globalization facilitated by WTO rules that has made the win-win economic cooperation possible between countries at different development stages, has resulted in its main architect feeling aggrieved that it is no longer favored to the extent it was. Now, the WTO is in difficulty, facing the most serious crisis since its founding.

The WTO's difficulties have much to do with the trade protectionism, unilateralism and obstructionism of the United States. Despite claiming to be a steadfast supporter of the rules-based multilateral trading system that the WTO governs, the slogan "America first" touted by the previous US administration points to how it expects that system to function.

With globalization eroding some of the privileges the US enjoyed, it started to violate WTO rules and refused to abide by its arbitration rulings, eventually bringing down the shutter on the WTO appellate body, which acts as the supreme court for international trade.

The US has expressed its dissatisfaction with the WTO by claiming that China has taken advantage of the loopholes in the trade rules. It accuses China of ripping the US off in their trade and economic cooperation. Some in the US even accuse China of exploiting the WTO by taking advantage of its dispute mechanism.

However, those making such claims turn a blind eye to the fact that China has been contributing to 30 percent of the global growth since its entry into the WTO. They have also ignored the fact that the US' transnational companies have benefitted considerably from China's development and so have American people who have been enthusiastic consumers of made-in-China goods.

China firmly supports the WTO, believing that it is the only international economic authority which can facilitate multilateralism and safeguard fair trade.

Despite the fact that the US played a major role in setting up the WTO, what the US wants is not fair trade rules and a mechanism for win-win economic cooperation. Instead, it wants to reshape the global trade system so that it is once again in a privileged position.

But globalization is the trend of the times and the US cannot change that.

The 12th Ministerial Conference of its top decision-making body that is ongoing at the WTO headquarters in Geneva will determine whether the global trade body can function as it should. It is the right thing to do to support the WTO for fair trade and win-win economic cooperation among all countries.