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U.S. wants China to meet
WTO commitments
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Dec. 18 called on China to step up its efforts to fulfill its trade liberalization commitments it had pledged on its entry two years ago into the World Trade Organization.
In its second annual review of China's progress on the matter, the office of the United States Trade Representative expressed deep disappointment and criticism toward Beijing.
"The shortcomings in China's WTO implementation are noteworthy. Unlike last year, China's uneven and incomplete WTO compliance record can no longer be attributed to start-up problems," the USTR report said.
Although the report said the U.S. is willing to continue bilateral negotiations to solve the problem, it said, "If bilateral efforts are not successful the administration is fully prepared to enforce U.S. right through other means, including dispute resolution at WTO."
The report especially noted that China's efforts to implement WTO-related promises had lost momentum in 2003.
While China made some progress in areas such as reform in agriculture trade and financial services, its failure to comply with many other WTO- related commitments largely offset the progress, the report said.
The report also criticized Beijing's attempt to turn other countries' attention from its delay in fulfilling those promises.
"China has sought to deflect attention from its inadequate implementation of required systemic changes by managing trade in such a way as to temporarily increase affected imports from vocal trading partners, such as the United States," the USTR said.
The report, like last year's, singled out agriculture, intellectual property rights and services as areas of the U.S. "serious concern."
For example, China's failure to protect intellectual property rights remains "pervasive" across many areas of business activities.
"The lack of effective IPR (intellectual property right) enforcement in China is a major obstacle toward a meaningful system of IPR protection," the report noted.
In agriculture trade, Beijing's use of biotech-related rules and other measures keep hampering U.S. exports of soybeans and other agricultural products, the report said.
In addition to these areas, China's use of industrial policies and other practices have developed as new sources of U.S. concern.
The questionable use of these non-tariff trade barriers was "particularly apparent in the automotive sector, where a proposed industrial policy threatens to undercut many U.S. industry gains in China's market," the report said.
Date: 1/8/04
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