Since China offered a truce in the trade war last October following its threat to deprive the United States of rare-earth magnets, the Trump administration has been happy to stop escalating. After all, imports from China have been falling, down by 40% in the year to June, compared with the same period in 2024. Best to declare victory and call it a day. But the US hasn’t won this battle – and there’s strong evidence to show it’s too chicken to really try. Last week the White House was forced…
Tag: World Trade Organization
Zhu Rongji obituary
Zhu Rongji, who has died aged 97, was the fifth premier of the People’s Republic of China and one of its most effective administrators and economic reformers following its foundation in 1949. In 1991, Zhu was summoned to Beijing, in the footsteps of the then president and party secretary Jiang Zemin, and in the aftermath of the 1989 uprisings in Beijing and the collapse of the Soviet Union. As vice premier in the state council, and governor of the People’s Bank of China (1993-95), Zhu was put in charge of…
Dysfunction and division darken the WTO’s 30-year dream of free trade
When trade ministers gathered in the Moroccan city of Marrakech 30 years ago this month to sign the agreement creating the World Trade Organization (WTO), the mood was celebratory. The Berlin Wall had come down only recently, communism had collapsed, and there was optimistic talk of how the body would prise open new markets and act as the arbiter when disputes broke out between countries. The atmosphere today is much darker than it was in April 1994. Any enthusiasm for groundbreaking trade liberalisation deals disappeared decades ago and has been…
‘Reglobalization’ to the Rescue?
Russia, China, Iran and their allies, by contrast, tend to use the term to describe a new world order in which they play a greater role, said Benedikter, who first heard “reglobalization” at a 2017 conference in Russia. Since then, he said, the term has gained traction as the global supply chain has experienced shocks from the pandemic, Russia’s war on Ukraine and attacks by Houthi rebels on commercial ships in the Red Sea. To Harold James, a Princeton economic historian, the term describes the constantly shifting relations in global…
China Lifts Punishing Tariffs on Australian Wine
In a sign of easing tensions between Australia and China, China said Thursday it will lift the tariffs it placed on Australian wine more than three years ago. The tariffs, which were first imposed in 2020 amid a nasty diplomatic spat between Australia and China, had all but vaporized the country’s biggest overseas market, worth 1.2 billion Australian dollars or around $800 million at its peak. Australian winemakers faced desperate hardship and were stuck with a surfeit of big-bodied red wines. The decision to lift the tariffs was announced by…
Lawmakers Call for Raising Tariffs and Severing Economic Ties With China
Bipartisan lawmakers on Tuesday called for severing more of America’s economic and financial ties with China, including revoking the low tariff rates that the United States granted Beijing after it joined the World Trade Organization more than two decades ago. The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party released a wide-ranging set of recommendations for resetting America’s economic relationship with China. The report, which was signed by both House Democrats and Republicans, argued that China had carried out a “multidecade campaign of economic aggression” that had undercut American firms,…
Australia and China suspend WTO wine tariff dispute ahead of Anthony Albanese’s trip to Beijing
China has agreed to review the tariffs it places on Australian wine producers after a breakthrough in negotiations ahead of Anthony Albanese’s trip to Beijing next month. Albanese said on Sunday the two countries had agreed to suspend their long-running World Trade Organization dispute while Beijing undertakes an “expedited review” of duties, which is expected to take five months. If the sanctions are not removed at the end of the review, Australia will resume the dispute. “We welcome China’s agreement to undertake an expedited review of its duties,” Albanese said…
Australian government says ‘yeah, no’ to deal with China to drop wine tariffs
The Australian government has said “yeah, no” to a reported package deal offer from China to drop its tariffs on Australian wine in return for more favourable treatment of its wind towers, railway wheels and stainless steel sinks. The agriculture, forestries and fisheries minister, Murray Watt, said on Sunday that the Albanese government regards these as “entirely separate matters” but will seek to resolve remaining trade issues through dialogue. In August, China announced it would remove tariffs on Australian barley, resulting in Australia dropping its dispute in the World Trade…
Ron DeSantis says he will try to revoke China’s trade status if elected president
The Republican presidential candidate and Florida governor Ron DeSantis said on Sunday he would aim to revoke China’s permanent normal trade relations status if he won the White House next year. “I favor doing that,” DeSantis told Fox News. “I think we probably need Congress but I would take executive action as appropriate to be able to move us in that direction.” The Senate voted in 2000 to grant that status to China as it prepared to join the World Trade Organization. Any step to remove it would also need…
Australian winemakers hopeful of breakthrough on $1.2bn China trade but still plan to diversify markets
Australian wine producers hope Beijing could soon remove tariffs that slashed the $1.2bn trade by 99% – but say they are wary about relying too heavily on the Chinese market. After the Australian government announced a deal with China that could lead to the scrapping of tariffs on barley within months, wine producers also expressed cautious optimism. The chief executive of Australian Grape and Wine, Lee McLean, said he hoped China’s promised review of the barley tariffs went well and could serve as a template for removing the imposts on…