This book provides one of the most comprehensive and compelling analysis of Non-Market Economies (NMEs) and their treatment under the current world trading system. In particular, it examines the treatment of China as an NME in anti-dumping investigations, especially post-December 2016. Central to this analysis is Section 15 of China’s Protocol of Accession to the WTO, which is the focal point of the controversy between China and other major WTO Members. The book highlights multiple perspectives on the interpretation of Section 15 and the Second Ad Note to Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which form the legal basis for China’s special treatment in anti-dumping proceedings, and provides unique approaches on interpreting the above treaty texts. In addition, the book explores recourses to trade remedy instruments other than anti-dumping to identify and address state-driven market distortions in the case of NMEs. Authored by leading practitioners and scholars, the chapters offer a detailed commentary and rich insights into the diverse approaches and methods used by anti-dumping investigation agencies of leading users. This book serves as an all-inclusive resource for discerning all facets of this issue, magnitude of the consequences, and potential threats to the delicate trading system. It is of particular relevance to economies-in-transition and newly acceding countries to the WTO. This book generates special interest among legal practitioners, exporters, trading firms, think tanks, academicians, policy makers and the entire community engaged in international trade disputes with China.

This book tries to integrate the different arrangements devised in the MTS for small and large NMEs into one analytical framework and explores two sets of rules (GATT/WTO-minus and GATT/WTO-plus) along three historical stages (shaping, weakening and strengthening). The focal point of this book is to uncover the composition and structure of the NME treatment in the MTS, its evolving logic and process, and the nature and trend of the political-economic relations between NMEs and the MTS.

Among the contentious issues relating to China's application for membership of the World Trade Organization is its designation as a non-market economy. This report assesses various aspects of this issue.

In 2007, the United States Department of Commerce altered a 23-year old policy of not applying the countervailing duty law to non-market economies, and initiated eight countervailing and antidumping duty investigations on Chinese imports. The change brings heated debate on trade remedy policies and issues of non-market economies. This study focuses on the first countervailing duty case on imported coated free sheet paper from China and analyzes the implications of this test case for United States-China bilateral trade, and industrial policies in transitioning market economies. The paper also provides a brief review of the economics of subsidies, World Trade Organization rules on subsides and countervailing measures, and United States countervailing duty laws applied to non-market economies. While recently acceded countries should review their domestic development policies from the perspective of economic efficiency and comply with the World Trade Organization rules, it is also important to further clarify the issues of non-market economies under the multilateral trading system, and pay keen attention to the rules negotiations in the current World Trade Organization Doha Development Round.

When designing a world trading system for the twenty-first century, “Keep calm and carry on” beats “Move fast and break things.” Global trade is in trouble. Climate change, digital trade, offshoring, the rise of emerging markets led by China: Can the World Trade Organization (WTO), built for trade in the twentieth century, meet the challenges of the twenty-first? The answer is yes, Robert Staiger tells us, arguing that adapting the WTO to the changed economic environment would serve the world better than a radical reset. Governed by the WTO, on the principles of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), global trade rules traditionally focus on “shallow integration”—with an emphasis on reducing tariffs and trade impediments at the border—rather than “deep integration,” or direct negotiations over behind-the-border measures. Staiger charts the economic environment that gave rise to the former approach, explains when and why it worked, and surveys the changing landscape for global trade. In his analysis, the terms-of-trade theory of trade agreements provides a compelling framework for understanding the success of GATT in the twentieth century. And according to this understanding, Staiger concludes, the logic of GATT's design transcends many, if not all, of the current challenges faced by the WTO. With its penetrating view of the evolving global economic environment, A World Trading System for the Twenty-First Century shows us a global trading system in need of reform, and Staiger makes a persuasive case for using the architecture of the GATT/WTO as a basis for that reform.

The Political Economy of the World Trading System is a comprehensive textbook account of the economics, institutional mechanics and politics of the world trading system. This third edition has been expanded and updated to cover developments in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since its formation, including the Doha Round, presenting the essentials of trade negotiations and the WTO's rules and disciplines. The authors focus in particular on the WTO's role as the primary organisation through which trading nations manage their commercial interactions and the focal point for cooperation on policy responses to the rapidly changing global trading environment. It is the forum in which many features of the globalisation process are considered, and it currently faces an unprecedented set of challenges. The increasing importance of countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa in international trade relations, the revealed preference towards regionalism, intensification of trade conflicts, the role of business groups and NGOs in trade policy formation and negotiations, and pressures for more leadership in an institution threatened by paralysis are examples of issues that are discussed in some detail; all are critical for the operation of the system and for international business in the coming decade. This edition also includes numerous real-world examples to illustrate how the WTO impinges on business, workers and households, written from the perspective of managers and business associations. An insider's view of the institutional history of the WTO allows the authors to use a variety of conceptual tools to analyse the working of the WTO in a non-technical manner. Suggestions for Further Reading at the end of each chapter and an extensive bibliography make the volume suitable both for introductory and postgraduate courses on international economics and business, international relations, and international economic law.

This book serves as a comprehensive study of and provides rich insight into non-market economy treatment, including its past, present, and estimated future practices and implications. It explores the introduction of the market and non-market economy dichotomy into international trade law. It traces the origin and development of non-market economy treatment against changing international economic and political background. The book examines this treatment in light of the rationale underlying anti-dumping, reflecting its alleged significance of ensuring fair trade. It in particular investigates the varied non-market economy treatment practices responding concerns of China’s rising as a large state-led economy, analyzing the deviation of NME treatment into an all-in trade tool. The book argues against preconceived bias and unilateral protectionism. It highlights the universal existence of government involvement in the market and proposes objective assessment of its impact on fair trade. Final proposition of the book is depoliticizing trade, reforming comprehensively international trade rules to carefully calibrate different values, including promoting fairness and enhancing global social welfare. It envisages a multi-dimension overhaul of international trade rules to rebalance trade interests, rather than roughly labeling an economy to confer different treatment, the practices of which lead to separation and chaos. The book is of particular relevance and interest to economies-in-transition, and among policy makers, academicians and legal practitioners engaged in trade remedies and trade rules reconstruction.