A riot is brewing. 127 countries have filed a protest to the WTO against the United States

(and hang on, my prediction is that the WHO is next.)

I found and translated this from https://cont.ws/@ATRcons/2452300,m  who did a good job analyzing this for us.

While Russia, fighting off Western sanctions, is busy with its own agenda, China has led the legal campaign against the United States. The World Trade Organization (WTO) was chosen as the battleground in Beijing. This international organization has the highest appellate body, where any WTO member country can apply if the dispute resolution chamber failed, in the opinion of the plaintiff, to make a fair decision. For many years, the United States has blocked the appointment of judges to this supreme body, which paralyzes the work of the appeal and causes deaf dissatisfaction in most countries.

Beijing was not afraid to challenge Washington and issued an official protest, demanding to immediately start the process of appointing judges and restore the work of the supreme dispute resolution body. “One in the field is not a warrior” – apparently, they decided in the United States and, as has happened more than once, simply ignored the Chinese demarche. But this time there was a failure — the world’s irritation with America’s actions is so great that the Chinese protest was first timidly and individually, and later more and more boldly joined by a variety of WTO member countries, and as of December there were already 127 of them (only 164 participants in the WTO). Now Washington is unlikely to be able to ignore such a powerful chorus of protesters. Otherwise, ” the United States will turn into the gray rhino of the international trading system. The damage caused by its collision can lead to the collapse of the international trading system, which will inevitably cause serious global consequences and exacerbate social unrest and political anger on a global scale. And all responsibility for this will lie with the United States, ” – quoted from the respectable Chinese Global Times.

Causes of the riot

Each of the dissatisfied countries has its own reasons for protest. In Europe, for example, they are very unhappy with the American law “On Inflation” that comes into force on January 1, 2023, which encourages the transfer of production capacities from the EU to the United States, while China is outraged by the ban on the supply of chips and microchips, which will also take effect on January 1. To understand the intensity of the confrontation, it is enough to cite the epithets that the Chinese Ambassador to the WTO, Li Cheng Gang, awarded America. “Saboteur of the global trading system”, “expert in intimidation”, “manipulator who applies double standards”, “destroyer of the global industrial supply chain” — this is not a complete list of statements made by the Chinese ambassador to Washington.

USA in proud solitude

“The protest of 127 countries at once is, of course, an extraordinary event —” explains the adviser to the NGO Center for Expertise on WTO Issues Maxim Medvedkov. — And the US position is quite vulnerable. According to the established practice, if a country is dissatisfied with something, it enters into negotiations with the majority in order to find common ground. The overwhelming majority of WTO members have repeatedly drawn attention to the need to unblock the work of the supreme appeals body, but the United States does not meet them halfway and does not make negotiating proposals.

Almost all WTO members agree on the need to reform the appellate body. The problem is that the Americans, on the one hand, block the appointment of judges, on the other hand, they do not say what exactly they want to change, how to reform in order to restore the ability to resolve disputes. And without an appellate body, the entire WTO judicial system cannot work. For example, a few weeks ago, the United States lost a number of disputes, but did not comply with them, referring to the fact that these are decisions of the first instance, and there is still a higher appellate body where you can challenge. At the same time, everyone understands that this body does not work because of the actions of the United States, and other WTO members can resort to such a sophisticated application of the law, which ultimately can devalue the entire work of the organization.

The inability to use the WTO dispute resolution system creates a sense of impunity for some members, while others want to solve problems elsewhere. Therefore, many countries are now looking at bilateral free trade agreements as a real alternative to the WTO in the international trade system. All states want to cooperate, export and import goods, and not wait for Washington to unblock the work of the judicial authority.”

While Russia, fighting off Western sanctions, is busy with its own agenda, China has led the legal campaign against the United States. The World Trade Organization (WTO) was chosen as the battleground in Beijing. This international organization has the highest appellate body, where any WTO member country can apply if the dispute resolution chamber failed, in the opinion of the plaintiff, to make a fair decision. For many years, the United States has blocked the appointment of judges to this supreme body, which paralyzes the work of the appeal and causes deaf dissatisfaction in most countries.