Daily Lessons from Life 22 June 2018 - USA determined to rule!!

"US unveils new veto threat against WTO rulings

GENEVA: The United States ramped up its challenge to the global trading system on Friday, telling the World Trade Organization that appeals rulings in trade disputes could be vetoed if they took longer than the allowed 90 days.

The statement by U.S. Ambassador Dennis Shea threatened to erode a key element of trade enforcement at the 23-year-old WTO: binding dispute settlement, which is widely seen as a major bulwark against protectionism.

It came as U.S. President Donald Trump, who has railed against the WTO judges in the past, threatened to levy a 20 percent import tax on European Union cars, the latest in an unprecedented campaign of threats and tariffs to punish U.S. trading partners.

Shea told the WTO's dispute settlement body that rulings by the WTO's Appellate Body, effectively the supreme court of world trade, were invalid if they took too long. Rulings would no longer be governed by "reverse consensus", whereby they are blocked only if all WTO members oppose them.

"The consequence of the Appellate Body choosing to breach (WTO dispute) rules and issue a report after the 90-day deadline would be that this report no longer qualifies as an Appellate Body report for purposes of the exceptional negative consensus adoption procedure," Shea said, according to a copy of his remarks provided to Reuters.

An official who attended the meeting said other WTO members agreed that the Appellate Body should stick to the rules, but none supported Shea's view that late rulings could be vetoed, and many expressed concern about his remarks."

Trump's USA is very determined to right what it perceived n believed r maltreatment by the rest of the world on trade issues!!

It also rubbished the UN Humanitarian Council as biased n unfriendly towards its closest ally, Israel!

Not sure how true it is abt the maltreatmnt meted out to the USA on trade disputes though it claimed it has huge trade deficits with China n EU. So big is the deficits that it is hurting USA, its industries n its workers!! Such exploitation cannot be allowed to go on.

Is this really the case? That the world wants USA to buy from them but does not want to import fr the USA?

Whatever happened to comparative advantages of different geography n natural resources hence complementing each nation in the world trade system?

Maybe everyone want to develop in the same space like technologies, media n telecom, medicines, etc. while national resources r considered "low tech"??

Let's see how this tussle plays out over the next 12 mths! May there b some form of compromises. Otherwise, export oriented economies everywhere will suffer. Sgp will b hard hit given our extremely small domestic market!!