China flexes muscles at WTO in disputes

[Joanne98]

* China increasingly active at WTO
* Launches first trade dispute against EU

* Takes U.S. to WTO court


By Jonathan Lynn

GENEVA, July 31 (Reuters) - China flexed its muscles on the international trade stage on Friday, launching its first dispute against the European Union and setting litigation at the World Trade Organisation in train in a row with the United States.

The moves showed a growing willingness by China, which only joined the WTO in 2001, to use the global trade watchdog's procedures to advance its own interests.

In practice that means that China -- one of the most frequent targets of trade measures from both developed and developing countries -- is increasingly appearing as plaintiff.

"I think it is a very important step for China to adapt itself to professionalism with WTO rules," a trade official at the Ministry of Commerce said in Beijing.

"As a new WTO member with only seven years, China needs to learn and this is a learning step," he said, commenting on the move against the European Union.

In that case China called for consultations with Brussels over the EU's antidumping duties of up to 85 percent on imports of Chinese screws and bolts.

Consultations are the first stage in a WTO dispute, normally lasting up to 60 days. If they fail to resolve it they can be followed by the creation of a WTO panel to examine the case.

The consultations stage had already passed in the other dispute with the United States, over a ban on imports of Chinese poultry. Beijing obtained a WTO panel in that case after Washington blocked a previous attempt on July 20.


"PROTECTIONIST, BIASED, DISCRIMINATORY"

In both cases China condemned protectionism by the two rich trading powers, denouncing EU policy as biased and the U.S. approach as discriminatory. Continued...

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLV22341220090731

We're totally screwed now!

[FreakinDJ]

1. WTO is a Sham and China is using it

Fuch it is like Jack the Ripper complaining of Police Brutality

Lost iPhone prototype spotlights counterfeiting
Copying of prototypes occurs frequently in the electronics and IT industries

HONG KONG— One week after the apparent suicide of a Chinese factory worker accused of stealing a carefully guarded Apple iPhone prototype, one question remains unanswered: what happened to the missing phone?

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 81 percent of all counterfeit goods seized at the U.S. border were from China. The value of those goods rose 40 percent in 2008, to $221.7 million.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32217731/ns/tech_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Copyright Violations
Intellectual Property Right violations
Export quotas
Trade Barriers

If the WTO fails to recongnise China manipulating the WTO courts they are nothing but a sham