WTO: China Wins Case Over United States While India Loses One

The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled last week that the Chinese government is within its rights to impose new tariffs on $3.6 billion in U.S. goods. The damages awarded are the third-highest in WTO history.

As Connecting the Dots reported last week, China had petitioned for the new penalties because officials there believe the U.S. government United States did not fully comply with a previous WTO ruling regarding tariffs that the U.S. government had put on Chinese solar panels, wind towers, and steel cylinders. (In January this year, the WTO gave the U.S. Commerce Department until Aug. 22, 2019 to modify its anti-dumping methodologies or face the prospect of Chinese retaliation.)

As The New York Times explains, the ruling means “China can keep the tariffs in place until the United States changes its behavior or the two countries agree to some type of resolution.” At press time, the Chinese government had not yet announced which U.S. products will be subject to the new penalties.

Meanwhile, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative also announced last week that a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute panel agreed with United States arguments that India provides prohibited export subsidies to the country’s exporters worth more than $7 billion annually. The subsidies benefit several industries, including the producers of steel products. The WTO panel gave India six months to withdraw these prohibited subsidies.