China Tells

China joined World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. Between 2001 and 2008, China only filed two cases regarding trade disputes through WTO. However, since then, China has filed five more (See Article from Economist). Clearly China is learning the rule of WTO fast. In fact such a trend is consistent with the international environment change – USA and EU used to file at least 50% of the WTO arbitration cases in the past. During the last two years, however, the dominance of case filing has been replaced by emerging economies. I see it as a positive thing as the whole purpose of WTO is to solve trade dispute through a legitimate and reasonable way within a legal framework. We should always remember that it is better to resolve a dispute based on some ‘rules’ than getting it sort out naturally, which inevitably result in violence and power struggle.

中国在2001年加入世贸组织。从2001年到2008年，中国一共就贸易争端上诉了2次，少之又少。近来，中国的贸易诉讼明显增多。这恰恰显示了中国对世贸组织贸易规则的学习和熟悉过程，同时开始合理运用规则来争取自己的合法权益，应该是值得肯定的一大幸事。