The China and Brazil Dispute

The China and Brazil Dispute

In the Xia case, if the WTO were to rule in favor of Brazil, which of the WTO trade agreements would contain the justification and why?

After the Brazil media hint on the toxic raw materials used in manufacturing the toys in China, the Brazilian government ordered the removal of toys from the market until some confirmation of the toys were made. During that period, Brazil was the highest importer of toys from China. So the government had a responsibility to make sure that its citizens are safe from any harmful substances. If, in any case, the toys contained these toxic materials, health problems would come up and, as a result, decrease the economic status of Brazil. According to the World Trade Organization (WHO) agreements, any country member involved in the trade should ensure that the goods and services offered are safe and free from any harmful substances. In this case, the WTO would support the Brazilian decision to ban the import of toys from China until the goods were declared safe.

If the details of the Xia case were indeed presented to the WTO, explain what the WTO ruling would most likely be and why.

Resolving disputes among trade countries is one of the many functions of WTO (Kuenzel,2017). In this case, the Chinese government worry about other countries’ withdrawal from the toy trade pushed it to present the case before WTO. Since the organization’s main aim is ensuring trade between countries is not affected, it would implement several measures to ensure the business is not negatively affected. If the claims by the Brazilian government were valid, the organization had a right to impose fines on China. Additionally, the organization’s staff would try and find out if there was a breach of trade agreements between China and Brazil. If a violation happened, the panels would ask China to respect the trade agreements.

In the soybean case, what was the measure adopted by the Chinese government to protect soybean farmers from import surges, and what are the WTO parameters for instituting such measures?

The Chinese administration argued that the low prices from Brazil’s soybean negatively affected the Brazilians in the coastal regions. As a result of losses incurred during harvesting the soybean in Brazil, the farmers hiked the prices forcing the consumers to buy the imported soy as opposed to the local. The Chinese government’s initiative of banning soybean importation would significantly improve the living standards of the local farmers because consumers would buy the domestic soybean. Yildirim et al. (2018) explain that the organization’s aim is ensuring fair goods trade and market increase when China banned soybean importation for eighteen months because the local soybean demand among the Brazilians would increase as a result of the importation ban.

If the details of the soybean case were indeed presented to the WTO, explain what the WTO ruling would most likely be.

The government of China took the case to WTO when Brazil removed the toys imported from its market from the fear that other countries would join Brazil. Shortly after, before the ruling on China’s case, its government followed suit and banned the importation of soybean from Brazil. The most reasonable judgment from the organization would be imposing fines on China or uphold Brazil’s decision because the Chinese government was hasty in revenge as opposed to waiting for the organization’s judgment.

References

Yildirim, A. B., Chatagnier, J. T., Poletti, A., & De Bièvre, D. (2018). The internationalization of production and the politics of compliance in WTO disputes. The Review of International Organizations, 13(1), 49-75.

Kuenzel, D. J. (2017). WTO dispute determinants. European Economic Review, 91, 157-179.