The United States imposed tariffs on Chinese products in violation of international trade rules and did not provide the explanation to justify the weight of the measures, the WTO ruling states.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has found that US tariffs on Chinese goods violate international trade rules. The decision seriously undermines President Donald Trump‘s trade war with Beijing, which has resulted in Washington imposing tariffs on China’s exports worth more than $ 550 billion.
According to sources, a group of three trade experts announced that the US violated international rules when in 2018 it imposed tariffs on Chinese products.
Although the ruling reinforces Beijing’s claims that Trump’s trade war violated WTO rules, Washington may veto the ruling by appealing within the next 60 days. This is because the Trump administration has already paralyzed the WTO’s secondary body, weakening the world’s most important trade regulator.
At the heart of the controversy is the Trump administration’s interpretation of the US trade law (from the 1970s) that allowed it to unilaterally impose a trade war against China in 2018.
“Given the conclusion that the United States has not adequately explained how the measures are necessary to protect public morals, the United States has failed to meet its responsibility to demonstrate that the measures are provisionally justified under Article XX (a). Therefore, the Panel does not consider it necessary to make findings on whether the United States has demonstrated that its measures satisfy the requirements of the chapeau of Article XX,” the ruling states.
