The 15 year period after China's WTO accession during which litigation about the treatment of China as a "non-market economy" was put on hold has now expired, and the litigation can commence. This is from Inside US Trade:
China this week wasted no time challenging the United States and European Union at the World Trade Organization over its non-market economy status, ...
Beijing requested consultations with the U.S. on Dec. 12, according to a WTO official, one day after a provision in its WTO accession protocol expired that explicitly permitted other countries not to grant China market economy status. China is expected to circulate its request for consultations later this week.
Beijing's filing will kick off an extended legal battle over how to interpret China's accession protocol after the expiration of Article 15 paragraph (a)(ii) on Dec. 11. China claims that the expiration of that article means that other WTO members must grant it market economy status, meaning that the U.S. and EU would not be able to use third-party pricing data in antidumping investigations. Using third-party pricing data effectively drives up the margins in AD cases.
The WTO web site notice is here, but the consultations requests themselves are not available yet.
Let's hope this does not take another 15 years to resolve.
