Enforcement of WTO Commitments: The Sweet and The Sour

Participation in the WTO is not tantamount to submission to a supranational government. Accordingly, neither the WTO nor any member state can force China to fulfil its WTO agreement obligations or its Protocol of Accession (Protocol) market access commitments. The only recourse available to a WTO member state is the imposition of unilateral sanctions against China if authorization is formally granted by the WTO pursuant to comprehensive dispute settlement procedures. Aggrieved foreign companies have no right to raise a claim against China under the WTO rules.

Naturally, a number of trade and non-trade considerations would influence a member state's decision to initiate a claim against China, such as:

• the potential for aggravating bilateral political tensions;
• possible trade friction in the form of informal non-tariff barriers being raised against specific industries or companies of the complaining member state; and
• the risk that China would raise other claims against the complaining member state, particularly in cases where a member state uses trade to influence China's social policies.

The relatively limited role of the formal WTO dispute resolution regime is perhaps best evidenced by the fact that only 231 complaints have been filed since 1995, involving only 178 distinct matters.

Anatomy of a Dispute