The United States, not China, threatens the global trade system, China’s foreign ministry said on Monday, after US President Donald Trump’s administration called US support for Beijing’s joining the World Trade Organization in 2001 a mistake. WTO rules have proved ineffective in making China embrace a market-oriented trade regime, and the United States “erred” in backing China’s entry to the trade body on such terms, the office of the US Trade Representative said last week. Other countries have benefited from trade with China, which has stuck by the route of reform and opening up and has supported an open global economy, she added. “I think everyone has seen that it’s precisely the United States’ unilateralist methods, and the sounds it’s made on unilateralism, that are an unprecedented challenge to the multilateral trade system,” Hua told a regular news briefing. White House officials have said China has failed to follow through on promises to move toward a market-oriented economy.

Source: Hindustan Times January 22, 2018 09:00 UTC