WTO Dispute Panel Report on China’s Administration of Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs) for Certain Agricultural Products
Published in farmdoc daily, 2020
Recommended citation: Orden, D., C. Xie, B. Chen, L. Brink and C. Zulauf. "WTO Dispute Panel Report on China’s Administration of Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs) for Certain Agricultural Products." farmdoc daily. (9):84, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, May 8, 2019.
Introduction
A World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute panel circulated its report on April 18, 2019 concerning U.S. claims that China’s administration of tariff rate quotas (TRQs) for corn, rice and wheat has been inconsistent with its legal obligations (WTO 2019). This article summarizes the dispute arguments and panel findings. A key conclusion of the panel is that China has failed to ensure that administration of its TRQs would not inhibit the filling of each TRQ, and the panel recommended that China be requested to bring its measures into conformity with its obligations. This is the second time in 2019 that the U.S. has successfully challenged China’s agricultural support and trade measures at the WTO. An earlier panel report, adopted by the WTO on April 26, 2019, found that China’s domestic support for wheat and rice had exceeded its WTO commitments during 2012-2015 (farmdoc daily March 6, 2019) and requires China to bring its domestic support into compliance.