China and the WTO

China and the WTO
Wednesday, February 10, 2021
9:00 AM US Eastern Time
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Summary:
China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 was greeted with euphoria by trading partners eager to gain greater access to China’s market of a billion-plus consumers. Two decades on, the debate is whether China’s outsized global trade dominance reflects merely a failure by the WTO to enforce its rules, or if the regime is fundamentally inadequate to address the challenges posted by China’s massive state-led economy. Professor Petros C. Mavroidis will discuss his new book (co-authored with Andre Sapir), China and the WTO: Why Multilateralism Still Matters. He will explain why China presents the WTO with a unique challenge, and how judicious reforms could save the WTO regime.

About the Speaker:
Petros C. Mavroidis is the Edwin B. Parker Professor of Foreign and Comparative Law at Columbia Law School. He was a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) legal affairs division from 1992 to 1995 and has been a legal adviser to the WTO since 1996. He was the chief co-rapporteur for the American Law Institute study “Principles of International Trade: The WTO” (2013). The first two volumes of his book The Regulation of International Trade won the 2017 Certificate of Merit in International Law for a distinguished contribution to the field from the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. Volume 3 was published in 2020.