CHINA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WTO: “The Trump administration on Friday [7-26-19] escalated pressure on the World Trade Organization, giving the international group a 90-day ultimatum to alter a provision that the United States argues has long allowed China to game the global trading rules. In a proclamation, President Trump said that the United States would ‘use all available means’ to secure changes to a provision at the World Trade Organization that allows countries to decide whether they qualify as ‘developing countries.’ Countries that claim that label — which includes nearly two-thirds of the organization’s 164 members — qualify for certain preferential treatment, like longer time horizons to carry out trade agreements. The Trump administration argues that dozens of countries abuse those rules and has singled out China, the world’s second-largest economy and the largest global exporter for about a decade, saying it should not be classified as a developing nation.”
–Ana Swanson, “Trump Presses World Trade Organization on China,” The New York Times online, July 26, 2019