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Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng Comments on WTO Dispute Settlement Case of China's Appeal against U.S.

Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng commented on the WTO dispute settlement case of China’s appeal against the United States on July 17. Following is the full text.

Speech by Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng on WTO Dispute Settlement Case of China’s Appeal against the United States

Recently, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has released two ruling reports on China’s appeal against the United States in a row. The WTO appellate body and panel groups have supported most of China’s appeals in their separate ruling and announced that over 20 anti-dumping and countervailing measures made by the U.S. against China’s exports to the U.S. violated the WTO rules.

Since the U.S. carried out countervailing investigation against China’s exports to the U.S. in 2006, China has consistently negotiated with the U.S. and strongly doubted the consistency of what the U.S. did with its domestic law as well as the WTO rules. Over the past seven years, China has proposed a series of appeals against the U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing measures, and the ruling results have proved that at least none of the 26 anti-dumping and countervailing measures the U.S. carried out against Chinese products before March 2012 obeyed the WTO rules, and also it’s greatly doubted whether its domestic trade remedy legislation conformed to WTO rules.

The abuse of trade remedy measures by the U.S. has seriously impaired the legitimate rights of Chinese enterprises. The Chinese government has paid serious attention and will not sit by and do nothing. That China made a series of appeals to the WTO against the U.S. is to make full use of its rights as a WTO member and safeguard its own legitimate rights. In doing this, China is also firmly maintaining the stability of the multilateral trade system and solemnity of WTO rules.

I strongly urge the U.S. to face their legislation and practices in trade remedy fields that violate WTO rules constantly and systematically, carry out the rulings made by the Dispute Settlement Body of the WTO honestly, correct the wrongdoings of abusing trade remedy rules timely and comprehensively, and set a good example of seriously adhering to the rules rather than an example of a rules-breaker. Against the backgrounds of the slow recovery of world economy, the U.S. is more obliged to safeguard the multilateral trade system and WTO rules, and fight against trade protectionism.

China-U.S. trade and economic relations are the ballast and propeller of China-U.S. ties. Sound and sustainable China-U.S. trade and economic relations require efforts from both sides. I sincerely hope that the U.S. side could inject more positive vigor into the development of China-US trade and economic relations.


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