Trade
Dispute Settlement

China requested formal consultations at WTO over the US tariffs on tire imports from China. Whether the case will work out in favour of China is unclear, as the special safeguards measure was included as part of the price for China joining the WTO in 2001.

Trade
Dispute Settlement

Complying for the first time with a WTO decision against China, the Chinese Government announced that it would reduce tax on imported auto parts. Along the four-year process of negotiations leading up to the decision of compliance, China may have lost the battle but won the war, as foreign automakers have been moving auto production to China on a large scale, and the Chinese announcement would have "virtually no impact" on them.

Trade
Dispute Settlement

Handing China a third defeat in WTO dispute settlement in the last 13 months, a WTO panel ruled in a case brought by the US that China violated fundamental WTO rules requiring national treatment as well as China's accession commitments by requiring the US movie studios, book and newspaper publishers, and record labels to go through a state-owned middleman company before they can sell their products to Chinese consumers. China may lodge an appeal on the panel decision, which some lawyers say China has little chance of winning.

Trade
Dispute Settlement

China requested the WTO to set up an expert panel to decide whether a US ban on Chinese poultry imports violates WTO regulations. China and the US banned imports of each other's poultry products in 2004 following outbreaks of bird flu, but later agreed to lift the bans. China now complains that the US did not keep her word after China did, calling it "naked discriminative protectionism measures, which are strongly opposed by the Chinese government and enterprises".