Consultations sign of progress

China and the United States will hold formal consultations over the US' countervailing measures against Chinese exports under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism on Wednesday and Thursday. Twenty-two product categories, including steel, solar cells and wind turbine towers, worth a collective $7.3 billion, are involved.

This is another chance for China and the US to use the WTO trade dispute settlement mechanism to resolve their bilateral trade disputes.

Over the past 10 years since China's accession to the WTO in December 2001, China has become the world's second largest trading economy. Accession to the WTO greatly sharpened China's competitive edge in the international trade arena, with Made-in-China products selling well all over the world. China's total volume of exports and imports surged from $509.65 billion in 2001 to $3.64 trillion in 2011, a more than six-fold increase.