GENEVA (Reuters) - China and the United States blamed each other on Tuesday for risking the destruction of the World Trade Organization, with Beijing’s ambassador decrying U.S. hostage-taking and Washington’s envoy calling China’s claims “Alice in Wonderland”.
U.S. Ambassador Dennis Shea, addressing the WTO’s General Council for the first time, began by attacking the judges of the WTO’s Appellate Body, whom he blamed for a “steadily worsening rupture of trust”.
“Something has gone terribly wrong in this system when those charged with adjudicating the rules are so consistently disregarding those very rules,” Shea said, according to a copy of his remarks provided to Reuters.
The United States has vetoed new appointments to the Appellate Body, causing a crisis at what is effectively the supreme court of world trade.
Shea said the judges had over-stepped their authority and had broken the rules by failing to observe a 90-day timetable for judging appeals. Many experts say the delays are caused by ever-more complicated disputes piling up in a congested system.
Chinese Ambassador Zhang Xiangchen, who had put the issue on the agenda, began by warmly welcoming “our new colleagues, especially Dennis”. But the cordial opening gave way to criticism of the “dangerous and devastating” U.S. actions.
“By taking the selection process as a hostage, the U.S. is abusing the decision-making mechanism of consensus,” Zhang said.
The U.S. veto, along with steel and aluminum tariffs and a threat to put $50 billion of tariffs on Chinese goods for alleged intellectual property theft, had systematically challenged the WTO’s fundamental principles, he said.
“Any one of these, if left untreated, will fatally undermine the functioning of the WTO.
