<img src='https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2025-02-20/-Constructive-WTO-talks-after-China-condemns-Trump-s-tariff-shocks–1B9op7a15C0/img/3c03dd3f84514c30ade16fa796d9d439/3c03dd3f84514c30ade16fa796d9d439.jpeg' alt='The World Trade Organization HQ in Geneva. /Denis Balibouse/Reuters'
The World Trade Organization said on Wednesday that discussions on trade tensions were “constructive”, after China said the U.S. imposition of “tariff shocks” could upend the global trading system.
At a WTO meeting in Geneva on Tuesday, China condemned tariffs launched or threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump’s sweeping 10 percent tariffs on all Chinese imports, prompted Beijing to respond with its own tariffs and to file a WTO dispute against Washington in what could be an early test of Trump’s stance towards the institution.
The majority of the six countries that participated in the talks on trade turbulence, put on the agenda by China, raised concern about mounting tensions, but also called for restraint, said WTO spokesperson Ismaila Dieng in a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday.
Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and the U.S. took part in the discussions, which were part of broader talks on trade.
The large majority “stressed the importance of upholding WTO principles and values and called for action to preserve the stability and effectiveness of the global trading system,” Dieng added.
It’s the first time that mounting trade frictions were formally addressed on the agenda of the watchdog’s top decision-making body, the General Council.
‘Tariff shocks’
“These ‘tariff shocks’ heighten economic uncertainty, disrupt global trade, and risk domestic inflation, market distortion, or even global recession,” China’s ambassador to the WTO Li Chenggang said at a closed-door meeting of the global trade body on Tuesday, according to a statement sent to Reuters.
“Worse, the U.S. unilateralism threatens to upend the rules-based multilateral trading system.”
U.S. envoy David Bisbee called China’s economy a “predatory non-market economic system” in response and accused it of violating and evading WTO rules.
The Trump administration has announced plans to withdraw or disengage from other global organizations, but the WTO has not yet been a major focus for the White House. However, incoming U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has called the WTO “deeply flawed.”