Fifteen years ago on Sunday, China became a full-fledged participant in the global economy by acceding to the World Trade Organisation. As if to underline the often fractious experience since, an agreement made by the WTO’s other members when China joined is coming back to bite them.
Beijing is marking the anniversary by launching a WTO case against the US and EU. It charges Brussels and Washington with failure to honour a pledge in China’s 2001 WTO accession agreement that it would by now be regarded as a “market economy”.
This is a finely balanced question, and it is easy to see the EU and US’s point. China is not a free market on any reasonable definition. Cheap Chinese imports from heavily subsidised industries, notably steel, have aroused anger worldwide, and featured heavily in Donald Trump’s election campaign. Mr Trump has unequivocally saidChina is not a market economy. Despite this, Beijing has a strong case at the WTO, so Brussels and Washington need to be prepared to accept defeat and find other ways to address distorted trade.