U.S. Joins Europe in Fighting China’s Future in W.T.O.<br />T.O., an international body for establishing trade rules and settling disputes that President Trump previously called a “disaster.”<br />China is classified as a nonmarket economy, which allows the United States and other countries to use a special framework under W. T.O.<br />Mr. Lighthizer said that he had “made it very clear that a bad decision” on China’s status “would be cataclysmic for the W. T.O.”<br />Nicholas R. Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said Mr. Lighthizer’s<br />statements called into question whether the United States was looking for a reason to withdraw from the W. T.O.<br />The brief, which will be made public on Thursday, will laid out their legal arguments for why China does not deserve the designation of a “market economy,” a distinction<br />that would entitle it to preferential economic treatment under the W. T.O.<br />Those officials include Robert E. Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, who in his confirmation hearing before the Senate in June described China’s challenge against Europe<br />and the United States as “the most serious litigation matter we have at the W. T.O.<br />“Maybe this is going to be one of the nominal excuses to taking us out.”<br />On Wednesday, senior United States officials said that the W. T.O.<br />Senior United States officials said on Wednesday that they had filed a brief to the W. T.O.<br />The move is likely to ratchet up trade tensions with China, which the White House has called one of the world’s biggest trade offenders.<br />It could also strengthen the resolve among top Trump administration officials in their claims that the W. T.O.
