WTO Members Slams U.S. Import Tariffs at Trade Council Meeting
Reporter
April 11, 2025 | 07:47 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Around 20 World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries criticized the United States in the meeting of the Council for Trade in Goods for its import tariff policy.
At least 20 delegations expressed their criticism of the U.S. import tariffs, according to a source close to the WTO on Friday, April 11, 2025, as quoted by Antara.
The source outlined that among the countries criticizing the U.S. import tariffs on that occasion were China, Switzerland, Norway, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Canada, and Japan.
The source said that Russia also conveyed its statement regarding the issue.
The U.S. then responded to China's statement by stating that they would not comment further because the issue had been brought to the WTO Dispute Settlement Body, according to the source.
On Thursday, another source stated that during the meeting, China expressed deep concerns about the "significant uncertainty" experienced by the world economy due to the implementation of U.S. import tariffs.
According to the Chinese delegation, every day "brings new disruptions that disturb the highly reliable stability for all businesses and countries" because of the U.S.
On April 2, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order implementing "reciprocal" import tariffs on dozens of countries in addition to the basic import tariffs of 10 percent.
Starting April 9, dozens of countries faced the threat of "reciprocal" tariffs, which were determined solely based on the trade deficits the U.S. had with those nations. President Trump’s goal was to reduce or eliminate this deficit.
Yet, on the day these reciprocal tariffs were set to be enforced, Trump unexpectedly announced a 90-day delay, during which only the standard 10 percent import tariff would be applied.
He explained that more than 75 countries originally targeted by the policy had refrained from retaliatory measures and instead requested negotiations.
Despite the postponement, the U.S. still moved forward with increasing tariffs on Chinese goods to as high as 145 percent, prompting China to respond by imposing its own tariffs on American products, reaching up to 84 percent.
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