Keynes and Bown focus on a huge WTO dispute in which China is suing the European Union and the United States over their refusal to treat it as a market economy, meaning they will not put lower duties on Chinese exports. They discuss how China’s economy has evolved over time, how to define a “market economy,” and the dispute’s potential implications for the future of the entire multilateral trading system. Special features include Keynes’s interview with European Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmstrom, and conversations about the issues with PIIE Senior Fellow Nicholas R. Lardy and Harvard Law School Professor Mark Wu.

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• Soumaya Keynes ‘China takes on the EU at the WTO,” The Economist, 7 December 2017
• Chad P. Bown, “Trump says China is not a market economy. That’s a big deal.,” Washington Post (Monkey Cage), 12 December 2016.
• Chad P. Bown, “The Perils of Shifting China’s ‘Market Economy’ Dispute to the WTO,” World Politics Review, 21 December 2016.
• Chad P. Bown, “Should the United States Recognize China as a Market Economy?” Peterson Institute for International Economics Policy Brief 16-24, December 2016.
• Nicholas Lardy, Markets Over Mao: The Rise of Private Business in China, Columbia University Press, 2014.
• Mark Wu “The ‘China, Inc.’ Challenge to Global Trade Governance,” Harvard International Law Journal 2017, 57(2): 261–24.