By lodging its case with the WTO, the Hong Kong government may think it is taking a principled stance against US trade bullying. Unfortunately, this bully can’t be reasoned with; he beats his chest each time he flouts international law and norms shouting, “America first”.
After all, this is US President Donald Trump 2.0 who has just signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) for issuing arrest warrants over Israeli war crimes. Trump 1.0 also sanctioned the predecessor of the ICC’s current chief prosecutor.
Trump has, as yet, not threatened to invade the ICC in The Hague, as he had hinted at with Canada, the Panama Canal and Greenland. But he doesn’t need to. The US, believe it or not, already has a law described by critics as “The Hague invasion act” authorising the US president to do exactly that!
But I digress. The administration of John Lee Ka-chiu is set to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization in response to Washington’s decision to levy an additional 10 per cent tariff on products from Hong Kong. At the same time, one of the city’s leading global corporations may have its port management contract with the Panama Canal unilaterally cancelled because of US pressure on the Panamanian government.
Commenting on the new tariff, an unnamed government spokesman said Hong Kong was a “staunch supporter” of the rules-based multilateral trading system, and that the government had urged the US to take immediate action to “rectify its wrongdoing”.
It was a good thing the spokesman stayed anonymous, otherwise Trump might sanction him, too!
However, you can’t blame it all on Trump. Though started under Trump’s first term, his successor, Joe Biden, continued and toughened the US position on Hong Kong.
