Home > African Agenda > No special treatment for China, India, S Africa, Indonesia at WTO, says Trump

The Trump administration is going on with his trade war by warning China, India, South Africa and Indonesia they will not be treated with kids’ gloves, writes *D. Ravi Kanth

Continuing his trade wars on multiple fronts, President Donald Trump has dropped another bombshell. He threatened in July that the US will no longer treat China, India, South Africa, and Indonesia as developing countries for availing special and differential treatment during the current and future multilateral trade deals negotiated at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The US, he said, will “use all avail-able means to secure changes at the WTO, that would prevent self-declared developing countries from availing themselves of flexibilities in WTO rules and negotiations that are not justified by economic and all other indicators.”

In 90 days, China, India, South Africa, Indonesia, and 30 more countries must stop designating themselves as developing countries for availing what is referred to as the S&DT (Special and Differential Treatment). Otherwise, the US (a) “will not sup-port any such country’s membership in the OECD (the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)”; “consider the WTO member’s involvement in global trade, member-ship in key economic decision making groups, placement within relative economic and other indicators, and any other factors the USTR (United States Trade Representative) deems appropriate”;