Two Decades of China in the WTO: The View from the US

Wednesday, December 8, 2021
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM (Eastern Time)

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About the Event

Twenty years after China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), the US and other member states are questioning China’s commitment to the institution and to the multilateral liberal trading order. They are concerned that China is falling short of its WTO treaty obligations with respect to state-owned enterprises, enforcement of intellectual property rights, and other areas. China says it is willing to address shortcomings that fall within the WTO’s scope, but it views most of the concern as exaggerated. Professor James Bacchus of the University of Central Florida, a founding member and former chairman of the Appellate Body of the WTO, will discuss why it is in the mutual interest of the US and China to develop multilateral solutions to their trade grievances and work together to return the WTO to the center of world trade. USALI Faculty Director Jose E. Alvarez will moderate.

Read Professor Bacchus’s new USALI perspectives essay on the WTO here.

About the speaker

James Bacchus is the distinguished university professor of global affairs and director of the Center for Global Economic and Environmental Opportunity at the University of Central Florida. He was a founding judge and was twice the chairman – the chief judge – of the highest court of world trade, the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization. He has judged more WTO trade disputes than anyone else in the world and has been described by The American Lawyer magazine as “the John Marshall of the World Trade Organization.” Bacchus is a former member of the US Congress and a former international trade negotiator for the US. He is the author of several books: Trade and Freedom, The Willing World: Shaping and Sharing a Sustainable Global Prosperity, and The Development Dimension: Special and Differential Treatment in Trade (with co-author Inu Manak).