‘Coronavirus A Global Disease, Urge WTO Members Not To Put Trade Curbs On China’

PUNE: With the U.S.’s sustained attack on the Appellate Body of the WTO – the body which determines trade disputes between member nations – and President Trump’s statement that countries such as India and China are taking advantage of their “developing country” status to get unfair trade benefits, there is a real danger to the functioning of the international body at the moment. But apart from countering Washington’s contention of unfair trade benefits, Beijing is also worried about the outbreak of the coronavirus from a trade perspective. Ambassador Zhang Xiangchen, China’s Permanent Representative to the WTO, tells Opinion Editor Ashwin Ahmad that his country has urged WTO member nations to remember that the coronavirus is a “global disease” and they must not use it as an excuse to levy non-tariff restrictions on Chinese products. Instead, they must all come together to safeguard global trade for the common good.