Forbes did an interesting two part series (actually, there may be more parts coming, I'm not sure) on China in WTO dispute settlement. From part 1:
Facing a distressed export sector and rising protectionism amid the global economic crisis, the Chinese government will get more comfortable and aggressive about lodging WTO complaints against the U.S., scholars and lawyers say.
This entailed a massive attitude shift for Beijing, from seeing WTO disputes as a failure of bilateral diplomacy to wielding the WTO dispute settlement mechanism as an extremely useful, and necessary, instrument of foreign trade policy. For Beijing, a more mature role as WTO plaintiff is also part and parcel of its growing assertiveness in the global economic order this year.
From part 2:
China is gearing up to launch or fight World Trade Organization disputes with the U.S. more aggressively, but it doesn't have enough of its own lawyers to do it. Chinese law firms are scrambling to build up their WTO practices, but they face industry challenges. So it looks like Beijing will stick with U.S. law firms to fight its WTO battles, while China's legal industry races to ameliorate its competitive disadvantage, in a process that could take many years.
