Work with allies to update WTO rules instead of waging solo trade war, former US officials tell Donald Trump
The escalating trade war and new US tariffs on Chinese goods could end up being the catalyst needed for the WTO to modernise
Former senior US trade officials are urging the Trump administration to work with allies to modernise the World Trade Organisation and use the body to resolve its grievances with China, rather than continue its barrage of tariffs that flout WTO rules.
The US-China trade war has seen the WTO largely relegated to the sidelines, with critics contending that a number of its mechanisms are outdated and thus inadequate for dealing with practices involving digital trade and state-led economies – issues core to US claims about China.
“It is time to update it,” former US Trade Representative (USTR) Mickey Kantor said. Kantor, now a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown in Los Angeles, led negotiations during President Bill Clinton’s administration that resulted in the WTO’s founding in 1995.
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“A lot has changed since then,” said Kantor, who was the US secretary of commerce in 1996-97. “The world has significantly changed the way it operates and communicates.”
Forced technology transfers and market-distorting state subsidies are two modern-day trade practices attributed to China and deemed by many WTO members to be inadequately covered by the body’s rules, which have not undergone a substantive overhaul since the organisation was established.