US, EU should fulfill WTO vow to fruits of partnership

The European Union should have recognized China as a market economy one year ago because, as one of the members of the World Trade Organization, it had agreed to a "sunset clause" in 2001, when China joined the WTO, that it would stop using the "surrogate country" approach when calculating anti-dumping measures against Chinese imports by Dec 11, 2016.

In 2001, China was allowed a 15-year transitional period by the WTO to reform its economy to meet free trade requirements, which it has done. About 100 economies have already recognized China as a market economy, which means they have stopped using the "surrogate country" approach when evaluating Chinese exports.

Normally, in an anti-dumping dispute investigation, countries use the cost of production in a third country to calculate the value of imports from a given country. And as the EU and the United States, China's biggest trade partners, are still reluctant to abandon this approach, Chinese businesses face high anti-dumping tariffs.