Media Wonk

Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

China fires back - April 10, 2007

U.S. trade officials insist that the filing of a pair of complaints against China with the WTO was not a "hostile act," but the message was apparently garbled in translation.

In a statement issued through the official Xinhua news agency, Chinese trade officials said they were "strongly dissatisfied" with the U.S. action and warned that it could damage further cooperation on intellectual property issues.

"The decision runs contrary to the consensus between the leaders of the two nations about strengthening bilateral economic and trade ties and properly solving trade disputes", Ministry of Commerce spokesman Wang Xinpei said. "It will seriously undermine the cooperative relations the two nations have established in the field and will adversely affect bilateral economic and trade ties." 

Wang added that Chinese officials had not yet seen the formal "request for consultations" filed by the U.S. in Geneva Tuesday morning, but said they would "deliberate upon" and "actively respond" to the complaint.

Of course, a certain amount of face-saving bluster by China was to be expected. Whether that's all that was going on in their initial reaction probably won't be known until the consultations actually get under way.

 

[Digital Copyright]  [Legal]  [Trade]   LEAVE A COMMENT