WTO TELLS CHINA TO LIBERALISE ITS BOOK IMPORT SYSTEM
December 1st, 2009
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CHINESE government has been told by a World Trade Organisation (WTO) appellate body to lift its ban on foreign private companies importing books and other publications. The body has ruled such rules breach the WTO's general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT) and that China has "not demonstrated that [its rules] are 'necessary' to protect public morals". This is an allowable excuse for maintaining such restrictions, but the appellate body backed a WTO trades dispute panel report issued earlier this year that dismissed Chinese ...
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