China has submitted a document to the World Trade Organization defending the most-favoured nation principle in response to challenges from the United States and the European Union. Beijing warns that ending non-discrimination in global trade rules could allow powerful countries to dominate smaller ones. The document marks the first such submission from China since the WTO launched a formal self-review in 2022.
China's Ministry of Commerce announced on Thursday that Beijing has submitted a document to the World Trade Organization (WTO), marking the first such submission since the trade body initiated a formal self-review in 2022. The paper states that blatant violations of the most-favoured nation rule are “eroding the foundation of the rules-based multilateral trading system,” warning that they raise the risk of returning to a system that favors powerful countries and marginalizes smaller economies.
The non-discrimination principle has come under mounting pressure, particularly since the United States breached it last year by imposing sweeping tariffs on almost all its trading partners. China's defense of the rule follows submissions from Washington and Brussels calling for it to be revisited.
“China considers the most-favoured nation principle a way to ensure equal treatment and to prevent discriminatory practices,” said Liang Yan, an economics professor at Willamette University in the US. “But the US and EU challenge the most-favoured nation [principle] to reserve more room for discretionary treatments based on national security concerns and de-risking strategies.”
The submission underscores Beijing's support for multilateral trade rules, with keywords including trade surplus, tariffs, and the non-discrimination principle, involving entities such as the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the WTO.