There was a time when Beijing quietly settled WTO trade complaints against China. In the first five years after joining the organization in 2001, it didn’t contest a single complaint against it. No longer. It says it will contest the newly lodged complaints from the U.S. and the E.U. that it unfairly limits exports of raw materials in a way that subsidizes local steel and manufacturing companies. And it has launched a tit-for-tat complaint against the U.S. over poultry. Similarly it countered Buy American provisions in the U.S.’ stimulus package with Buy Chinese ones of its own.
Does all this amount to a ramping up of protectionism. To this Bystander’s mind, not as much as the doomsters would have us believe. China is learning the rules of the WTO game, and starting to play it. Better by far for the rest of the world to have Beijing on this particular field than off.
