China Ready to Discuss Tariffs and Subsidies with U.S. at WTO

• China is ready to have discussions about trade policies, including tariffs and subsidies, that Washington has identified as obstacles to reforming the World Trade Organisation, a senior delegate at China's mission to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said.
• China had heard "every word" the U.S. had said at the WTO about its trade practices and is open to discussing tariffs, industrial policy and some benefits it gains from its developing country status, as part of broader conversations on reform ahead of a 2026 ministerial meeting in Cameroon, the delegate said.
• Washington, however, argues that there can be no meaningful WTO reform until China and other major economies relinquish privileges known as Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) granted to developing countries, which the U.S. says give them an unfair advantage.
• The delegate said China's developing country status was non-negotiable, but it might forgo SDT in upcoming negotiations, as it did recently on fisheries and domestic regulations. However, former WTO spokesperson Keith M. Rockwell, a senior research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation, was sceptical that China would fully relinquish SDT in areas like agriculture.
• The U.S. opposes countries picking and choosing SDT benefits and wants China to completely renounce them. The delegate said China was open to discussing subsidies to ensure a fairer playing field, provided it was met with goodwill in return. But it would not accept any attempts to try to change its economic system, they added.

(Source: Reuters)