Ambassadors from Beijing and Washington came to blows at the WTO’s general council meeting in Geneva, reports Bloomberg, with tariffs and free-trade sparking arguments from the two sides.
China criticised the $150 billion of tariffs on Chinese goods proposed in recent months by President Donald Trump, arguing that the US is inhibiting global free trade. The US team, in turn, pointed fingers at China for their threats of retaliation.
Deputy US Trade Representative Dennis Shea compared the rhetoric employed by China to the fictional, backwards reality of Alice in Wonderland, where “white is black. Up is down.”
“The truth is, it is China that is the unilateralist, consistently acting in ways that undermine the global system of open and fair trade,” said Shea. “The WTO must avoid falling down this rabbit hole into a fantasy world, lest it lose all credibility.”