Trump Agrees to China Talks Despite Rejecting WTO Authority

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Despite arguing that the World Trade Organization has no authority over the issue, the Trump administration has agreed to enter into a WTO “dispute settlement” scheme with the Communist Chinese dictatorship. The Trump administration argues that the primary disagreement, which surrounds U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, is a matter of national security, and therefore beyond the purview of the globalist WTO. Instead, U.S. authorities countered that the regime in Beijing was actually violating international trade rules. Unfortunately for Americans, though, allowing the WTO to meddle in or even overturn American policy represents a grave threat to U.S. sovereignty and self-government.

The meetings at WTO were requested by the Chinese regime earlier this month, mostly in response to the Trump administration’s announcement of tariffs. Trump’s proposed tariffs, 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, were touted as national security measures under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Citing the mass-murdering regime’s ongoing theft of intellectual property from American industry, Trump also threatened tariffs on some $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. And for that, Beijing again demanded consultations at the WTO, and again suggested that Trump’s proposed measures were somehow a violation of the globalist outfit’s controversial rules. U.S. officials described Beijing’s complaints as “completely baseless.” But still, they agreed to submit to talks at the WTO.

Trump has consistently argued that the United States is being taken advantage of, both by China and the WTO. “China, which is a great economic power, is considered a Developing Nation within the World Trade Organization,” he observed on social media earlier this month. “They therefore get tremendous perks and advantages, especially over the U.S. Does anybody think this is fair. We were badly represented. The WTO is unfair to U.S.” In a post just this week blasting the sovereignty-shredding Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Trump touted bilateral trade deals, saying, “Look how bad WTO is to U.S.” And indeed, the WTO consistently rules against the United States, even overturning laws passed by the American people’s elected representatives.

The Communist Chinese, on the other hand, worried that Trump’s moves to protect U.S. national security from the globalist-backed dictatorship in Beijing would blow up the global “trade” regime that has so benefited them — while crushing American industry and sovereignty. These “protectionist moves under the pretext of national security will undermine the credibility of the WTO-centered multilateral trade system, and the rules-based global trade order,” complained Chinese Communist Party operative Zhang Ming, who leads Beijing’s mission to the European Union (EU). In response to Trump’s proposals, the Communist Chinese have threatened to impose their own, massive tariffs on what U.S. goods are exported there.

Beyond the murderous regime in China, which has been built up into a monster with key help from the globalist establishment in the West, top globalist bureaucrats were also outraged by Trump and his efforts to end the abuse of America. Among those expressing outrage was Executive Director Arancha Gonzalez with the International Trade Centre (ITC), a joint agency of the WTO and the dictator-dominated United Nations. “Donald Trump is the WTO,” she declared on CNBC, ignoring that the WTO has for decades been used to undermine U.S. sovereignty and industry. “The WTO is 164 countries [governments], the WTO is not anything else than the sum of a group of countries sitting around a table making a decision to exchange reciprocal concessions.”

She also suggested Trump was being unfair and unreasonable. “The word reciprocal is very important to these leaders — I give you, and you give me. You may give me in cars and I give you in textiles. It’s reciprocal and you decide,” Gonzalez continued, as if Trump were refusing to negotiate. “But if the WTO doesn’t work, it’s because the leaders don’t want it to work. I think it’s in their interest to make the WTO work because it’s the most efficient way to fix today’s interdependence.” Gonzalez has also been a fierce critic of Trump’s efforts to protect the United States from China, saying international trade must be based on international “rules.”

Sounding oblivious to American concerns and criticism of the WTO, the globalist bureaucrat suggested that what was really needed was an even stronger global-governance regime. “At the heart of this,” she said, “there is the need to fix the rules of the game for international trading areas where these rules are weaker and the need is greater — and these are around subsidies, state-owned enterprises and the transfer of technology linked to investment. These are three structural areas and we need a dialogue to fix these issues if we are to avoid what I see as a conflict.” Why nations and peoples were supposedly incapable of governing themselves and deciding for themselves what policies to live under was not specified.

Radical left-wing “economist” Joseph Stiglitz, a fervent globalist and apologist for WTO, has even defended the Communist Chinese regime’s theft of American intellectual property, suggesting Western companies knew what they were getting into when they decided to do business there. Now he is worried that Trump may blow off the whole globalist architecture of “trade” governance. Previous trade disputes, he said at a “China Development Forum” in Beijing, “were always done in the framework of the WTO, within international rule of law.”

But now, with Trump blocking the appointment of new globalist “judges” at the WTO, most of whom will almost certainly rule against the United States, “the WTO appellate body is getting hamstrung,” he said. Again, no explanation was given on why Americans would or should want to be subjected to international kangaroo courts, dominated by anti-American globalists and tyrants in the first place. Stiglitz also suggested foreign powers seek to inflict as much economic pain as possible on Trump’s base to get him to cooperate with the global governance regime.

Despite objecting to the validity of Beijing’s complaints, the Trump administration did agree to submit to WTO arbitration, sparking concerns. “Without prejudice to the U.S. view that the tariffs imposed pursuant to Section 232 are issues of national security not susceptible to review or capable of resolution by WTO dispute settlement, and that the consultations provision in the Agreement on Safeguards is not applicable, the United States accepts the request of China to enter into consultations,” the Trump administration said in its response to Beijing’s request at the WTO.

Some critics suggested Washington’s participation in the WTO trap may end up increasing both the power and prestige of the WTO. It was not immediately clear, though, what the Trump administration would do if the WTO ruled against America. In the past, the U.S. government has shamefully capitulated to every WTO demand and ruling. In 2015, for example, the WTO “appellate tribunal” claimed U.S. “Country of Origin Labeling” approved by Congress was a violation of its “rules.” Instead of fighting back or withdrawing from WTO, U.S. lawmakers immediately surrendered. Whether the Trump administration would consider doing the same remains to be seen.

In what was described by analysts as a “dig” at China in its communications with the WTO, the Trump administration also noted that it “looks forward to hearing from China how it intends to address China’s trade distorting policies addressed in the U.S. investigation mentioned in China’s letter to support fairness in the international trading system.” Additionally, the communication noted that the U.S. government is looking forward to hearing Beijing’s justifications for imposing additional tariffs on $50 billion in U.S. products including American soybeans and aircraft. Trump responded to the Communist Chinese threat by seeking tariffs on more than $100 billion of goods from China.

Trump and some of his advisors appear to have a solid understanding of the threats from Beijing and globalist organizations. Renowned economist and Trump advisor Peter Navarro, for instance, has been sounding the alarm about China’s abuses for years, even producing the documentary Death By China: How America Lost Its Manufacturing Base. On the other hand, there are a number of key figures in the administration with troubling views and associations. Among them is U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a member of the global-government-supporting, Communist China-backing Council on Foreign Relations. Lighthizer has been working overtime to further shred U.S. sovereignty with NAFTA “modernization.”

Writing on social media, Trump has denied that the United States is engaged in a trade war. “We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S.,” Trump said, ignoring the possibility that those alleged representatives of the United States, mostly from the globalist swamp known as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), may have understood exactly what they were doing. “Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!”

William F. Jasper, senior editor of The New American, noted recently that the steps taken on China by Trump should be just the start. “Indeed, the argument can be made that President Trump’s opening salvo regarding China should be just that: only the beginning of a major reversal of our past suicidal policies,” he wrote, highlighting the giant role of the CFR and American globalists in betraying their country. “We still have very much further to go.” Ironically, though, even far-left anti-Trump activists in the establishment media have noted that Communist China would lose a trade war with Trump — as long as the president stands firm and refuses to be bullied by Beijing and its allies in the United States.

The United States — along with its liberties, prosperity, and independence — are being targeted for destruction by powerful forces domestically and overseas. The regime in Beijing is one of the obvious foes. But perhaps more dangerous are the subversive pro-Beijing forces within the United States seeking always and everywhere to sell out more U.S. sovereignty — part of a fiendish push for what they publicly tout as a “New World Order.” The only way to resist the agenda politically is to preserve American independence and U.S. economic might, two of the pillars being targeted by Beijing and the WTO alike. Americans concerned about the survival and continued thriving of their nation must get educated and active — now, while there is still time.

Photo: adventtr/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, education, politics, and more. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU or on Facebook.