China pulls WTO suit over claim to be a market economy

One trade official close to the case said so much of the ruling had gone against Beijing that it had opted to pull the plug before the result became official.

“They lost so much that they didn’t even want the world to see the panel’s reasoning,” the official said.

Without a WTO ruling in Beijing’s favor, the EU and United States can keep imposing duties on cheap imports from China while disregarding its claim that they are fairly priced.

China had insisted that they treat it as a “market economy”, countering their view that the price of Chinese exports could not be taken at face value due to state interference in the economy.