The officials from China have expressed their dissatisfaction with the US tariff plan during a meeting held at the World Trade Centre’s dispute settlement body.

The have conveyed that China strongly disapproves the unilateral action, according to news agency reports who quoted a trade official present in the meeting.

The newly introduced tariff plan by the US is based upon Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act that was the main subject of a European Union complaint to the WTO two decades ago.

On Thursday, China posed questions over the legality of US tariffs at the World Trade Organization (WTO), while the US alleged that China is related in the theft of US intellectual property.

President of United States Donald Trump have signed a presidential memorandum last week suggesting tariffs on up to USD60 billion upon the Chinese goods for which the administration says is misappropriation of US intellectual property.

A 30 day consultation period would follow after the tariffs that begins as soon as a list of targets is published.

Over the same dispute, in 1999, a panel from WTO said that powerful countries in terms of economic strength must not threaten others with unilateral action.

“Merely carrying a big stick is, in many cases, as effective a means to having one’s way as actually using the stick,” the WTO ruling said.

At that time too, the panel said that the US law conformed to WTO rules due to the fact that US had “explicitly, officially, repeatedly and unconditionally” confirmed it would only employ Section 301 tariffs based on the outcome of a WTO dispute.

During the meet at WTO, China also said that if the US repudiated the pledge which it took during the 1999 hearings, its law may no longer meet the conformity.

As for now the current US actions could have intense implications for the WTO system, according to a Chinese official.

Besides this, the ambassador of China called on other WTO members to join him to oppose the Section 301 tariffs and “lock this beast back into the cage of the WTO rules”.

He also added that China was also seeing for other options, including a WTO complaint against the US tariffs.

A US official was quoted as saying that Pakistan also issued a warning about the use of Section 301 for which it said that it could let to serious consequences for developing countries and lead to an escalation of current tensions.

Japan was among those which agreed to the US view holding importance of intellectual property protection but also said that trade measures need to be in line with the WTO, the report said.

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