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The USA is again turning away from the World Trade Organization:

US Trade Agency Sees Negotiating New WTO Rules to Rein in China as Futile

February 5, 2019

WASHINGTON — 

Negotiating new World Trade Organization rules to try to rein in China’s “mercantilist” trade practices would be largely a futile exercise, the Trump administration’s trade office said on Monday, vowing to pursue its unilateral approach to protect U.S. workers, farmers and businesses.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office used its annual report to Congress on China’s WTO compliance in part to justify its actions in a six-month trade war with Beijing aimed at forcing changes in China’s economic model.

The report also reflects the United States’ continued frustration with the WTO’s inability to curb what it sees as China’s trade-distorting non-market economic policies, and offered little hope that situation could change soon.

“It is unrealistic to expect success in any negotiation of new WTO rules that would restrict China’s current approach to the economy and trade in a meaningful way,” the USTR said in the report.

Some U.S. allies, including Canada, the European Union and Japan, which are also frustrated with pressures created by China’s economic policies, have begun talks on the first potential changes and modernization of WTO rules since it was founded in 1995.

But any WTO rule changes must be agreed by all 164 member nations, and past efforts have stalled. …

While U.S. President Donald Trump said he would like to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping to try to hammer out a trade deal, the USTR report makes clear a massive amount of work will be needed to bridge the gulf between the two countries.

It cited the key structural issues in the talks, which also include China’s new cybersecurity law and discriminatory regulatory practices, as examples of how China aids domestic firms at the expense of foreign competitors in ways that escape WTO rules, adding that China has become “a unique and pressing problem for the WTO and the multilateral trading system.”

The criticism also comes as the United States weakens the WTO’s role as global commerce watchdog by blocking the appointments of judges to its appellate body, which may no longer be able to function by December, when two judges step down. https://www.voanews.com/a/us-trade-agency-sees-negotiating-new-wto-rules-to-rein-in-china-as-futile/4772977.html

Unlike the USA, the European Union is more willing to use the WTO, including against the USA:

The tariffs on Spanish black olives opened a new chapter in the US-EU trade war saga last year. Now the European Union has adopted a firm stance by announcing that the European Commission will challenge the US’s tariffs in the World Trade Organization (WTO).  These tariffs do not only have a big impact on Spanish olive exports, but they also represent a threat to the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

“The duties imposed by the United States on black olives from Spain are unjustified, unwarranted and go against the rules of the World Trade Organisation. Tomorrow, we are taking this case to the WTO dispute settlement system, requesting consultations with the US,” tweeted last Monday the European Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström. https://www.forbes.com/sites/anagarciavaldivia/2019/01/30/eu-stands-up-for-spanish-olives-against-us-tariffs-at-wto-interview-with-spanish-farmers-union/#2918a1eda716

The European Union sees the WTO as something that was dominated by the USA, but is something it can use to get its own rules in on trade. Notice something from a couple of months back:

EU to Push for G20 Summit to Support WTO Reform

November 27, 2018

BRUSSELS —

Global trade tensions are putting at risk commitments by the Group of 20 leading economies to keep markets open, European Union delegates to the G20 said, pledging to help reform World Trade Organization rules to resolve the strains.

G20 leaders meet on Friday and Saturday in Buenos Aires with the escalating trade dispute between the United States and China likely to top the agenda.

The chairman of EU leaders’ meetings Donald Tusk and the head of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, Jean-Claude Juncker will represent the 28-nation bloc at the summit.

“The outlook ahead of the summit is rather bleak. The rules-based international order is under increasing strain and global trade tensions remain unresolved, thereby negatively affecting the global economic outlook,” Tusk and Juncker said.

“We, therefore, want to focus our attention on convincing our partners that there is no better alternative than a coordinated multilateral cooperation,” they said in a letter to other EU leaders.

The United States and China have been imposing tariffs on each other’s goods in a dispute over market access, forced technology transfer, intellectual property rights and state subsidies to certain sectors that distort competition.

The EU, Canada and Japan are also involved because of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum products imposed by Washington earlier this year.

WTO rules had to be adapted to new global challenges, such as industrial subsidies, forced technology transfer and other market-distorting policies, the EU letter said.

The G20 summit should also aim to help end the blockage of appointments by the United States to the WTO’s body for settling disputes and halt the escalation of unilateral measures and countermeasures by the world’s two biggest economies.

President Donald Trump has brought the world’s top trade court to the brink of collapse by refusing to endorse new judges. From December 2019 there will be only one judge left, making it impossible for the WTO to issue final appeal rulings.

“The longstanding G20 commitments to keep markets open, to fight protectionism and support the multilateral trading system, risk becoming empty words,” the letter said.

The EU, which published proposals on Monday for WTO reform, would promote changes to the body’s three functions: negotiating, monitoring and dispute settlement to “tackle the root causes of the tensions”, it said.

The EU wants concrete progress at WTO trade discussions in Geneva by the time G20 meets again in Japan in June 2019. https://www.voanews.com/a/eu-to-push-for-g20-summit-to-support-wto-reform/4675848.html

The EU is moving to fill voids that the USA is causing. Notice also the following:

31 August 2018

Trump threatens to pull US out of World Trade Organization

President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw the US from the World Trade Organization (WTO), claiming it treats his country unfairly.

“If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Mr Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg News. …

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has also accused the WTO of interfering with US sovereignty. …

China’s commerce ministry has said it “clearly suspects” the US of violating WTO rules.

An initial complaint at the WTO was filed by China in July after Mr Trump imposed his first round of tariffs. …

The WTO is at the heart of the system of rules for international trade. It is the forum for sorting disputes between countries about breaches of global trade rules and for negotiating new trade liberalisation.

The EU, meanwhile, is trying to steer the US towards reforming the WTO rather than abandoning it.

Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee, told Politico magazine that it would submit plans to overhaul the organisation in September. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45364150

The USA has been giving the Europeans an unprecedented opportunity to write the rules for international trade. This is one of the ‘unintended consequences’ of Donald Trump’s trade policies and statements.

While the EU has cow-towed to the USA to some degree related to sanctions and Iran, the Bible shows that Europe, for a prophesied time at least, will eventually ‘win’ the trade war. Donald Trump’s approach is helping the Europeans by giving them more credibility as the USA is getting less credibility with many of the nations it trades with (as well as those it sanctions).

As I wrote this past Summer (see ‘Trade apocalypse’ will lead to the fulfilling of prophecies in the Book of the Apocalypse), to avert what has been called a ‘trade apocalypse,’ Europe wants to rewrite the rules for international trade.

Essentially Europe will dominate the WTO or perhaps instead establish or become an important near equivalent.

That is consistent with warnings in the Book of the Apocalypse, more commonly referred to these days as the Book of Revelation. That book teaches about an end time European power:

2 … Babylon … 3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. (Revelation 18:2,3)

The above is referring to the fact that nations of the world are prophesied to get wealthy trading with end time Babylon, which will be a European entity. This European power will have religious ties to the City of Seven Hills–the Church of Rome:

1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” (Revelation 17:1-2)

9 Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. … 18 And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:9,18)

The Bible tells of a trading power arising in Europe that is tied to the City of Seven Hills. Europe, the United Nations, and the Vatican have stated that they have agreed on essentially the same future for the world. Now, Europe is getting an opportunity to better mold trade in its image–with its standards and, at least indirectly, its control.

Back in 1971, the old Worldwide Church of God (WCG) published the following:

Momentous, historic events are transforming Western Europe. But most Americans are “asleep at the switch” to what is happening. It’s time for a self-centered America to wake up – before her allies become her enemies. Envision the startling future of Western Europe. A … union of perhaps 250 million people, surpassing both the United States and the Soviet Union in economic strength, possessing for the first time worldwide political power and influence. One news source recently called it an “enormous, physically powerful beast.” A new Western Europe controlling perhaps half of all world trade, by exclusive arrangements with dozens of nations who produce raw materials. A “United States of Europe” possessing one single currency – a currency so strong that it will replace the U. S. dollar as the kingpin currency of world trade.(Hogberg G.EUROPE’S COMMON MARKET RISING WORLD COLOSSUS. Plain Truth, 1971)

Now, Europe does have its own currency–a currency that some see as the logical replacement for the US dollar for world trade–especially because of US sanctions, etc. (see also SWIFT end of the USA by 2025 as EU, Russia, China, and Iran take steps?). Now, let me add that less than a decade after the above was published, the WCG publicly announced that Eastern Europe would also be part of this European power. And within a decade of that, Eastern European nations began to officially join in with what has become the European Union. And, in population (over 510 million), the European Union is actually larger than that of the USA and Russia combined (though once the UK is out, it will be a bit smaller–yet other nations want to become part of it).

The prophesied European power will be able to dominate world trade by developing/writing/controlling many of the rules for international trade and the world’s largest market.

With more and more of the world upset by US President Donald Trump, Europe is seizing an opportunity–an opportunity that will result in it fulfilling various end time prophecies.

Others can now see how Europe may rise economically and dominate trade as the USA fades from dominance.

Trade will be a factor in what can be called World War III.

As far as trade and our prophetic teachings go, here is a link to our video: Trade Disputes: CCOG Warnings Are Coming to Pass.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2019 at 8:00 am and is filed under Prophecy.

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