US Blocks WTO Panels on Its Steel, Aluminum Tariffs, and US Request for Panel on Retaliation Also Blocked
The U.S. blocked requests from China, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Turkey and the European Union to examine the legality of steel and aluminum tariffs at the World Trade Organization on Oct. 29. Panel requests can only be blocked one time, so at the next meeting, the panels will be formed. The U.S. was also seeking panels on retaliatory tariffs from China, Canada, Mexico and the EU, and those were blocked.
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The U.S., as it disputed the Section 232 case, said exceptions from WTO rules based on national security claims cannot be reviewed, and if the WTO were to undertake such a review, this would undermine the legitimacy of the WTO's dispute settlement system and even the viability of the WTO as a whole. That argument was from a summary of the meeting by a Geneva trade official. The U.S. also called the countries who retaliated hypocritical, since they didn't follow WTO rules on safeguard retaliation. The other countries say the steel and aluminum tariffs are really safeguards, not an action to guard national security, but the WTO only allows retaliation on safeguard tariffs after a judicial process.
China also blocked a panel to examine China's compliance with protecting intellectual property rights. The U.S. says that China discriminates against foreign technology, and won't enforce patent claims against a Chinese joint venture party after a technology transfer contract ends. China says those claims are without merit.