Significant WTO DSB 2011 Decisions Involving The United States and China

A significant number of trade remedy cases before the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) Dispute Settlement Body (“DSB”) in 2011 have involved the United States and China. The disputes are not all targeted at the United States’ use of trade remedy laws, as had been the case in the past. Increasingly, the United States has become a complainant at the WTO, challenging policies and decisions of the Government of China. A number of these WTO cases have involved the use of laws and policies never before examined by a WTO dispute settlement body.

This paper, submitted in conjunction with the Georgetown Law CLE International Trade Update, held February 10, 2012 in Washington, D.C., examines four cases before the WTO dispute settlement body in the year 2011: (1) the U.S. imposition of countervailing duties against subsidized imports from China; (2) China’s restrictions on exports of raw materials; (3) the U.S. application of section 421 remedies against China; and (4) the U.S. challenge to China’s imposition of duties on U.S. exports of grain-oriented electrical steel. The wide range of issues considered in these cases and the varying rulings by both the WTO panels and the Appellate Body provide an interesting insight into the different approaches to the trade remedy laws and other WTO agreements between the United States and China.