10/24/2018

CHINA/ECONOMY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WTO: “The United States wasn’t invited. Neither was China. Yet the two countries will loom large over a high-stakes effort to rescue the World Trade Organization from the trade fight sparked by the two economic superpowers. President Donald Trump has accused the Geneva-based body of complacency when it comes to reining in China’s unfair trading practices. And while criticism of Trump’s trade tactics abound, the administration’s ‘disruptively constructive’ policies — a phrase used recently by U.S. envoy to the WTO Dennis Shea — appear to have accelerated efforts to review and potentially rewrite the WTO’s legal system and rules…Trade ministers from 13 economies will gather in Ottawa on Wednesday [10-24-18] and Thursday [10-25-18] to begin discussing how to reform the global body that was designed to administer the rules of trade among the world’s economies. Representatives from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the European Union, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland are expected to be in attendance.”

Adam Behsudi, “Trump’s bluster succeeds in forcing WTO shakeup,” Trump’s bluster succeeds in forcing WTO shakeup,” Politico, October 24, 2018 11:41 am