China to WTO: US Tariffs 'Allow Protectionism to Be at Large'

While addressing the World Trade Organization (WTO), China trade envoy Zhang Xiangchen has urged the US on Monday to work on reforming the WTO by means of "consultations on equal grounds".

China told the WTO that US Section 301 measures had substantially increased tariffs, and that the move was "bringing back to life the ghost of unilateralism that has been dormant for decades", violating WTO rules. 

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China's trade envoy Xiangchen also stated that US steel and aluminum tariffs "allow protectionism to be at large under pretext of national security."

The statement was made following the publication of G20 final declaration on December 1 highlighting that the leaders of the G20 states have agreed on the necessity to reform the World Trade Organization (WTO) stressing that they would review the progress on the matter at the next summit.

China and the United States have been involved in a trade war since Trump stated in June that $50 billion worth Chinese goods would be subject to 25 percent tariffs in a bid to fix the US-Chinese trade deficit. Since then, the two countries have exchanged several rounds of trade tariffs.