China said on Monday U.S. policies are threatening the existence of the World Trade Organization, setting out a string of grievances in a WTO “reform proposal” published by the WTO on its website.
Since entering office, Trump has taken a tough line on the WTO, accusing it of unfairly penalizing U.S. trade while being soft on China, which was a far smaller economy when it joined the WTO in 2001.
He has threatened U.S. withdrawal unless the WTO can “shape up” and has blocked judicial appointments at the WTO’s Appellate Body, effectively the supreme court of world trade, meaning that trade disputes could go into legal limbo from December.
