WTO, patentes vacinas e o papel da China (relação com EUA)
JUkl21
In addition, as I noted in another paper, the COVID-
19 pandemic, despite being a disruption to world trade in
general, might provide some impetus towards advancing the
multilateral approach on some of the WTO reform issues
related to China.174 To help their firms cope with the
pandemic, many Western governments provided massive
subsidies.175Second, with the COVID-19 pandemic upending
entire markets at unprecedented levels, it also becomes more
difficult to ascertain the market benchmark, which is a key...
Third, despite it being the first country hit by COVID-
19, China was able to control the pandemic rather quickly
while most of the West are still fighting it. As the result, most
of the subsidy interventions have been provided by the United
States and by European Union member states, while China, the
country deemed by many to be the worst offender on subsidies
before the pandemic, has not been a major subsidy provider
this time. This could turn the tables on subsidy discussions as
the United States and European Union now find themselves
more on the defensive side. With this new set of negotiating
dynamics, it could be easier to negotiate subsidies disciplines,
especially if WTO members could agree on the types of
subsidies which are necessary to combat the pandemic and aid
the recovery.
To sum up, the unprecedented existential crisis facing
humanity—COVID-19—could, ironically, save the reform
efforts at the WTO to deal with its so-called “existential
threat”176—China.
Jun21
the WTO was able to play only a limited role in discouraging countries from imposing export restrictions, or in preventing the horse-trading that followed on desperately needed medical products. Its role has also not been particularly helpful in enhancing global capacity for timely vaccine production; countries in the Global South, even when they have the necessary production facilities, find themselves shackled by TRIPS. The pandemic shed a harsh new light on these preexisting vulnerabilities. The European Union, for instance, in the early months of the pandemic, put emergency export restrictions on hospital supplies to non-EU countries; China, in turn, was able to harness these shortages to enhance its own influence in Europe’s neighbourhood and beyond.[16] Even as Western manufacturing companies (AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech) have struggled to fulfil contracted preorders in the Global North, countries in parts of the Global South have had to turn to Chinese and Russian suppliers (their alternatives constrained, in part, by the WTO’s rules on TRIPS). Amid mask shortages and bilateral deals to acquire desperately needed drugs and equipment, the pandemic has revealed that the weaponisation of interdependence can have life-or-death consequences. And the WTO has failed to keep up with these changing ground realities.
Amrita Narlikar, “Holding Up a Mirror to the World Trade Organization: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” ORF Special Report No. 141, June 2021, Observer Research Foundation.
jul21
"We’ve seen this movie before in the Clinton administration," Hagerty told Fox News in an interview. "We allowed China into the WTO [World Trade Organization]. The thought back then: ‘Let’s expose China to our market economy, let’s give them the opportunity to see how we behave, let’s be conciliatory to China, let’s look the other way, and eventually they’ll behave in a more rational, more market-like fashion’. "That is not the China that exists," he added. "We’ve got to take the world as it is, not as we wish it would be." https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-senator-says-china-wont-ever-behave-in-rational-fashion-slams-liberal-groups-for-wishful-thinking(relação com EUA)
Speaking of consensus, rather than incensing our allies on trade as the Trump administration often did, the U.S. should revive the Trilateral Commission with the EU and Japan in developing an effective response to China. This would allow a more coordinated and forceful way to address China trade issues. For example, the U.S. could find common cause with the 2019 EU Commission Report “EU-China: A Strategic Outlook” in its trade-related areas. In particular, Section IV, on “achieving a more balanced and reciprocal trade and investment relationship,” contains many areas of overlap with U.S. concerns. This includes potential WTO reforms on subsidies and forced technology transfer. A trilateral stronger-together approach would be more effective than going-it-alone. Regarding forced labor in China, while this is a difficult issue for the WTO, at the 1996 Singapore Ministerial meetings, WTO members reiterated their commitment to the International Labor Organization’s core labor standards. Further, Article XX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) explicitly allows for trade remedies to be applied to products based on prison labor. To the extent that it can be shown that China’s Uyghur camps produce products such as solar panels, trade remedies can be rightfully invoked. There are ways to confront China on trade more productively than the Trump administration. The Biden administration needs to seize them quickly, reengaging with the WTO and working with allies. China is on a roll, and we should be too." Kenneth A. Reinert is a professor of public policy at the Schar School of Policy and Government of George Mason University. https://thehill.com/opinion/international/561568-confronting-china-on-trade
US-China rivalry is extending from Earth into space. That poses a challenge to American dominance.
The report states that the Chinese government’s “massive subsidy campaign [as much as $200 billion over the past eight years] to develop its domestic semiconductor capability” has exploited “gray areas” in international trade rules and avoided World Trade Organization (WTO) oversight. The Chinese government has propped up key tech industries, including semiconductors manufacturing and SME production, through a “novel subsidy strategy” meant to avoid “transparency requirements of the WTO subsidy regime.” Essentially, government subsidies are booked as “investments” to avoid WTO disclosure rules. https://www.forbes.com/sites/roslynlayton/2021/06/10/white-house-report-on-china-short-term-profits-undermine-long-term-resilience/?sh=6ccbc9272c19
jun21 EUA
Ministers from the Asia-Pacific trade group APEC on Saturday agreed to review trade barriers and expedite the cross-border transit of COVID-19 vaccines and related goods, but stopped short of a broad commitment to remove tariffs.
A meeting of trade ministers from the 21-economy group, which includes the United States, China and Japan, also produced pledges to support World Trade Organization negotiations for an intellectual property waiver on COVID-19 vaccines.
In three statements issued after the meeting, the ministers said they would “expedite the flow and transit of all COVID-19 vaccines and related goods through their air, sea and land ports.” https://www.euronews.com/2021/06/05/us-apec-newzealand
By the time China joined the WTO in 2001, U.S. manufacturing of employment had already been further halved to about 12%. Then over the next two decades, it declined by only an additional three percentage points. Even the U.S. government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics acknowledges that only one-fourth of jobs lost in the last two decades in the U.S. can be ascribed to China.
So, Why Does China Get all the Blame?
Simple. It’s because there was a vast consolidation of manufacturing in Asia. After China joined the WTO, many multinational corporations moved their factories from places like Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand etc. into China, where labor was relatively much cheaper. It was simply a matter of cost-efficiency. Thus, while Americans used to see names of numerous countries on the imported products before, now they just saw “Made in China” dominate the labels. This made China look like a bigger problem. https://www.nationofchange.org/2021/06/04/debunking-two-myths-china-stole-american-jobs-and-america-built-china/
3. (Engagement with China: Was It a Mistake?) WTO and the Belgrade Bombing. In the late 1990s, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji was boldly dismantling the centrally planned Chinese economy and breaking the “iron rice bowl”—the socialist system that was famously egalitarian but kept the nation mired in poverty.
In its place, private enterprise would drive China to decades of phenomenal economic growth, fueled in part by foreign investment; and U.S. companies with the best business practices were particularly sought after.
Following years of intense international negotiations, during which no one was more tough on China than the United States, the PRC got the green light to become a member of the World Trade Organization in December 2001. As a WTO member, China agreed to subject itself to global trade rules and allow other nations to sue it for unfair trade practices. Since that time, China has sued and been sued many times and has won and lost cases.
What a tragedy of history that in the buildup to this remarkable engagement, U.S. planes participating in the war in Bosnia mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. To a man, the top Chinese leadership believed that the bombing on May 7, 1999, had to have been intentional. And ever after it would prove difficult for American interests and values to gain traction in Chinese leadership deliberations.
Robert Griffiths teaches political science at Brigham Young University. A retired U.S. Foreign Service officer, he lived and worked for 14 years in China, including as consul general in Shanghai from 2011 to 2014. https://www.afsa.org/engagement-china-was-it-mistake
Os Estados Unidos violaram as regras da Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC) ao adotar uma nova exigência sobre a marcação de origem dos produtos de Hong Kong, disse o governo da Região Administrativa Especial de Hong Kong (RAEHK) nesta sexta-feira.
O governo da RAEHK apresentou sua primeira submissão por escrito a um painel do órgão de solução de controvérsias da OMC, dizendo que a exigência dos EUA é inconsistente com vários acordos cobertos pela OMC, incluindo o Acordo sobre Regras de Origem, o Acordo sobre Barreiras Técnicas ao Comércio e o Acordo Geral sobre Tarifas e Comércio de 1994.
Edward Yau, secretário de comércio e desenvolvimento econômico do governo da RAEHK, disse que a exigência dos EUA é discriminatória, injusta e politicamente orientada, enfatizando que ela "não está relacionada a uma determinação adequada do local de origem das mercadorias, conforme exigido nos vários acordos cobertos pela OMC". http://portuguese.xinhuanet.com/2021-05/29/c_139977436.htm
The US' order that requires Hong Kong products to be relabeled as "Made in China" is a "discriminatory and unjust" requirement motivated by political reasons, and violates WTO rules, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Friday. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1224792.shtml
He said that as well as the international aid it was already providing, China would give an additional US$3 billion over the next three years to support developing countries’ Covid-19 response and socio-economic recovery. “G20 members need to adopt responsible macroeconomic policies, keep the global and industrial supply chain safe and smooth, and give continued support to developing countries,” he said. Xi’s pledge comes as the US is adopting an increasingly proactive stance in helping other countries deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. US President Joe Biden announced a US$2 billion contribution to Covid-19 efforts at the G7 meeting in February after Xi in May last year pledged US$2 billion to help fight the health crisis. https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/05/22/21/china-pledges-3-billion-covid19-aid-developing-nations Biden said in early May that he would support calls from developing countries for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines. Xi said on Friday that China supported the WTO in making an “early decision” on the matter. However, European leaders have said the waiver is not a magic bullet and could hamper efforts to adapt vaccines to coronavirus variants
The United States Government has asked China what the scientific basis was for its ban on certain scrap materials at the start of this year.
In a communication to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the United States “raised concerns with the lack of clarity and transparency around the implementation of the ban” and that these measures “contradict China’s own pro-circular economy narrative that it is promoting in the WTO as well as internationally”. https://www.rebnews.com/united-states-asks-china-to-provide-scientific-basis-for-recyclate-ban/
The issue is whether Covid-19 vaccine makers should lose intellectual property (IP) protections in a bid to ramp up global manufacturing and expand access to doses in poorer countries.
The United States – a major vaccine producer that has so far kept most of its doses at home –
threw its support behind waiving IP protections on Covid-19 vaccines in a surprise move last week. But questions remain about whether China, now the world’s largest exporter of doses, will do the same.
In comments on Thursday, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin hedged, saying China “looks forward to active and constructive discussions among all parties within the framework of the World Trade Organization in a bid to achieve an effective and balanced result”.
Experts say China is likely to bide its time rather than picking sides following the US move, especially as negotiations are expected to be long and other nations to resist, despite the US support for waiving IP protections.
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