World Trade Organization

Authored by Carmen Elena Dorob?? via The Mises Institute,

This week WTO officials will gather in Buenos Aires for their 11th ministerial conference. There is very little hope that any of the deals on the agenda will be reached, as both the WTO’s negotiations and its dispute settlement system have long been paralyzed by political bickering and a deep-seated inefficiency in the organization itself. Anxious WTO ministers (such as the EU’s trade commissioner) are now grasping at straws and blaming Trump and his lack of support for the WTO’s troubles.

The US has filed a legal submission to the WTO as a third party, intervening in a case that China has brought against the European Union. The US rejects China’s argument that under the 2001 agreement, which confirmed China’s WTO status, it would should automatically be considered a “market economy” fifteen years after joining.

Trump's trade tsar, Robert Lighthizer, aka the US Trade Representative speaking before Congress on Wednesday, fired a warning shot at both Beijing and the World Trade Organization, warning that any decision to label China a “market economy” would have “cataclysmic” consequences for the body which has governed over international trade for decades.

In the latest warning from the White House that it is set to unleash trade policy that will be in sharp conflict with generally accepted trade norms, most likely a reference to some form of Border Adjustment Tax, the Trump administration has warned that the U.S. isn't and won't bound by decisions made at the World Trade Organization, in outlining a new trade agenda that "promises to root out unfair practices by foreign countries" and to escalate what are already simmering trade conflicts.

India are filing 16 cases against the US for violating WTO treaties, according to local media reports.  Delhi say that some U.S. programs in the renewable energy sector violate global standards. RT.com reports: When asked whether Delhi is planning to “to file 16 cases against the US for violating WTO treaties,” Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman replied positively.