Lighthizer Discusses WTO's Ability to Deal With Non-Market Economies

The World Trade Organization is ill-equipped to handle the conduct of non-market economies, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Sept. 25, but that doesn't mean it's useless. "I personally believe it’s an important body," said Lighthizer, who was once nominated to serve on the WTO appellate body but ultimately wasn't chosen. "If we didn’t have it, we’d have to invent it." Lighthizer was speaking at the 2018 Concordia Annual Summit in New York.

However, he said, the WTO was designed for capitalist countries. "The reality is when you put non-market economies in that structure, the rules aren’t really designed to deal with them; when you make that an 11-trillion-dollar non-market economy, then you really, really need to change," he said. But in order for the WTO to make changes to tackle China, China would have to agree to them, he said.

The question of how suited the WTO is to deal with China also came up earlier in the day on a Canadian panel at a different event in New York. Canada's International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr didn't agree with a Council on Foreign Affairs moderator's question that China has gamed the system. But he did agree the WTO could use reform. "We know that the WTO is not perfect, but we know it’s good and we seek to make it better," he said.