Spencer Griffith Quoted by Reuters on U.S., China and the WTO
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Akin Gump partner and former head of the firm’s Beijing office Spencer Griffith was quoted by Reuters in the article “Romney is likely to break ‘day-one’ China currency pledge” concerning a Romney administration’s attempts to use the World Trade Organization to influence Chinese currency policy.
Concerning a possible U.S. complaint at the WTO concerning China’s claimed currency manipulation, Griffith noted, “The WTO agreement nowhere, even under the subsidy and countervailing measures agreement, says anything about currency manipulation. You could go to a WTO panel and try to argue that currency manipulation violates China’s WTO obligations. My bet is that the United States would lose that case.”
Griffith also stated that, were a Romney White House to try to levy duties on China under domestic trade law, Beijing would file a complaint with the WTO that these duties are invalid under WTO rules and likely win.
Griffith’s bio can be read here.