China will seek WTO permission to sanction America amid Trump's trade war

Xi Jinping.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Beijing on Monday promised unspecified "countermeasures" if President Trump continues to escalate his trade war with China, and a Tuesday publication of a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting agenda indicated what some of them might be. China is planning to ask the WTO for permission to sanction the U.S. for imposing tariffs that violate a 2016 WTO ruling.

The type of tariff in question is called a "dumping duty," and it is being imposed on imported Chinese goods the Commerce Department says are priced below U.S. market value. At issue is how these tariffs are calculated: The U.S. uses a method called "zeroing," and China says it is illegal under the 2016 decision.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.