The Trump Administration has a chance to start working with 164 other countries to create “rules of the road” to stop China building national champions with government funding. Such state-owned enterprises or state-supported industries (SOEs) — think steel, aluminum and solar panels — have flooded global markets, depressed prices, and literally shut down hundreds of U.S. solar-panel startups.
Why the WTO Should Constrain the Power of China’s State-Owned Enterprises
It will make the global economy fairer and more competitive.
December 11, 2017
Summary.
Both developed and developing countries have reached a consensus that the global community needs stronger rules around SOEs, or State-Owned Enterprises. At the upcoming meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United States will have the opportunity to push forward with some more far-reaching proposals for governing global trade. In this piece, the author argues that current transparency provisions are a step in the right direction — but there’s a lot more work to be done when it comes to establishing clear, serious regulation of SOEs around the world.