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262 Harvard International Law Journal / Vol. 57
no means dominant.
3
A decade later, its share had more than tripled,
4
and
China became the world’s top exporter.
5
In 2013, China surpassed the
United States to become the world’s largest overall trading nation.
6
Depend-
ing on how one counts, the Chinese economy now ranks as the largest or
second-largest in the world.
7
Not surprisingly, as China’s importance in global trade has increased, so
too has the number of WTO disputes concerning China. Between 2006 and
2015, forty-four cases
—
representing over a quarter of the WTO’s
caseload
—
have involved China as a complainant or a respondent.
8
Only the
United States and the European Union (“EU”) outrank China in active
disputes.
9
Government officials give the impression that WTO dispute settlement is
effective. In the 2012 U.S. presidential election, President Barack Obama
boasted that his administration had filed more WTO cases against China in
his first term than his Republican predecessor had during the preceding
eight years.
10
Recent high-profile examples include the China
—
Raw Materi-
als
11
and China
—
Rare Earths
12
cases, in which the WTO ruled against Chi-
nese export controls on inputs critical to high-tech industries.
Nor has the WTO simply served as a forum for Western governments to
vindicate their rights against China. The reverse is increasingly true, but
3. Valentina Romei, China and US Battle for Trade Leadership, Fin. Times (Jan. 10, 2014, 06:08 AM),
http://blogs.ft.com/ftdata/2014/01/10/china-and-us-battle-for-trade-leadership/.
4. World Trade Organization, World Trade Report 2011, at 31 (2011).
5. See John Miller & Marcus Walker, China Dethrones Germany as Top Goods Exporter, Wall St. J. (Jan.
6, 2010), http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB126272143898416853; see also Steven Mufson, China Surpasses
Germany as World’s Top Exporter, Wash. Post (Jan. 11, 2010), http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2010/01/10/AR2010011002647.html.
6. Angela Monaghan, China Surpasses US as World’s Largest Trading Nation, Guardian (Jan. 10, 2014),
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/10/china-surpasses-us-world-largest-trading-nation.
7. See, e.g., China Set to Overtake U.S. as Biggest Economy in PPP Measure, Bloomberg News (Apr. 30,
2014), http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-30/china-set-to-overtake-u-s-as-biggest-economy-us-
ing-ppp-measure.html; Crowning the Dragon, Economist (Apr. 30, 2014), http://www.economist.com/
blogs/graphicdetail/2014/04/daily-chart-19; Hugo Duncan & David Martosko, America Usurped: China
Becomes World’s Largest Economy – Putting USA in Second Place for the First Time in 142 Years, Daily Mail
(Oct. 8, 2014), http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2785905/China-overtakes-U-S-world-s-largest-
economy-IMF-says-economy-worth-17-6trillion-America-falls-second-place-time-1872.html.
8. Calculation based on information provided at Chronological List of Disputes Cases, World Trade
Organization: Trade Topics: Dispute Settlement, http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/
dispu_status_e.htm (last visited May 22, 2016) [hereinafter WTO Dispute List].
9. Disputes by Country/Territory, World Trade Organization: Trade Topics: Dispute Settle-
ment: The Disputes, http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/dispu_by_country_e.htm (last vis-
ited May 22, 2016) [hereinafter WTO Disputes by Country/Territory].
10. See Mark Landler, In Car Country, Obama Trumpets China Trade Case, N.Y. Times (Sept. 18, 2012),
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/us/politics/in-car-country-obama-trumpets-china-trade-case.html.
11. Appellate Body Report, China
—
Measures Related to the Exportation of Various Raw Materials, WT/
DS394/AB/R, WT/DS395/AB/R, WT/DS398/AB/R (Jan. 30, 2012) [hereinafter China
—
Raw
Materials].
12. Appellate Body Report, China
—
Measures Related to the Exportation of Rare Earths, Tungsten, and
Molybdenum, WT/DS431/AB/R, WT/DS432/AB/R, WT/DS433/AB/R (Aug. 7, 2014) [hereinafter China
—
Rare Earths].
26