The trade war between the United States and China has been going on for many months. There have been many trade practices which the United States has called into question with regards to China. One of the many charges have been concerning subsidies for corn and rice producers. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is set to make a ruling on this.
The WTO is going to be ruling in favor of the United States over their complaints concerning corn and rice subsidies paid to farmers. The complaints were first made back in 2015 by then-U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.
The allegations were China was exceeding internationally set limits on agriculture subsidies. These were not being exceeded by a small amount either. The United States charged China had exceeded the subsidy limit by over $100 billion.
According to reports from Politico, the ruling has already been shown to all interested parties. This was done sometime before Christmas. However, the report has yet to be made public. Those releases are expected to happen sometime near the end of February or the beginning of March.
The timing of the public releases will be interesting as a Chinese trade delegation, led by the vice premier, will be in Washington at the end of this month for more talks. The Chinese delegation will be meeting with current U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Hopes are we could see a nearing resolution to the trade war around the time this report comes out.
It remains to be seen if the ruling will put added pressure on the Chinese to find a resolution to the trade dispute with the United States.
