GENEVA: China on Thursday blocked a US request for the World Trade Organisation to create an expert panel to resolve a dispute over Chinese restrictions on imports of American grain.

Washington first brought the case to the world trade body last December, complaining that China has violated its commitments by limiting imports of American rice, wheat and corn.

After consultations betw­een the parties failed to make progress, the United States on Thursday asked the WTO’s Dispute Settle­ment Body to set up an arbitration panel to resolve the matter.

The United States maintains that China, which became a WTO member in 2001, has not respected its commitment to facilitate market access to foreign competition.

Washington takes issue with China’s so-called tariff rate quota system for rice, wheat and corn, which it has said are so “opaque and unpredictable” that it dramatically limits imports.

In 2015, the tariffs on rice stood as high as 92 percent, the US Trade Representative said in December.

The Agriculture Depar­tment estimated China would have imported as much as $3.5 billion of additional US crops that year alone if the so-called tariff-rate quotas were properly used.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2017