The Chinese Economic Competition and the WTO (La Concorrenza Economica Di Pechino Si Combatte Con Le Armi Del WTO)

Abstract

As members to the WTO agreement and as signatories of the bilateral agreements, the EU and the US have to help China to comply with its commitments, but they also have the obligation of monitoring the advancement of legislative review and the application of the transparency requirements. The monitoring and enforcement obligations of trade agreements are a demanding task with technical complexity requiring a very high level of expertise. This is more than true with China because of its premature accession to the WTO, its vast territory and several years of gradual decentralization in favour of localities. The EU has demonstrated that it is ready to consider taking an aggressive approach toward China, under specific conditions and if other methods fail. The EU is prepared to introduce safeguard measures and quotas to protect EU companies when Chinese imports are the cause of material damage or might cause material damage to EU industry. It is surely important for the EU to protect its enterprises, but safeguard measures should be considered a temporary solution because they do not facilitate the good trade relations between the EU and China. The EU has to try to prevent problems instead of intervening at the very last moment, when the situation has become critical for EU companies. It is necessary for the EU to begin demanding more and more respect of all the WTO principles and in particular the transparency principles. In this way, by exploiting all the internal and international means, it is possible to help and convince China to comply with the WTO commitments, to open its system for generating market access opportunities for European companies.

Note: Document is downloadable in Italian.

Keywords: Cina, China, WTO, TRM, Transitional Review Mechanism, TPRM, Protocol, Transparency, Compliance, Implementation, Europe, European Union, EU, trade, monitoring, bilateral, multilateral

JEL Classification: K33