Mon 05 October 2020:
The delegate described the US failure to provide concrete evidence of the reasons for its measures as a “clear abuse” of rules
At the World Trade Organisation (WTO), China has accused the United States and India of breaking global trading rules over bans on Chinese-made apps, including TikTok and WeChat.
US President Donald Trump has targeted the popular apps with a series of orders that aim to ban US entities from doing business with them or downloading them from American app stores. In addition, the Trump administration wants to force the sale of TikTok to a US buyer by November 14.
A representative for China said at the closed-door meeting on Friday that the measures “are clearly inconsistent with WTO rules, restrict cross-border trading services and violate the basic principles and objectives of the multilateral trading system,” a trade official familiar with the matter, who did not wish to be identified, said.
The official said the delegate described the US failure to provide concrete evidence of the reasons for its measures as a “clear abuse” of rules.
In the same meeting, the United States defended its actions, saying they are intended to mitigate national security risks, the trade official said.
The government has previously said data from American users is being accessed by the Chinese government.
In June, India banned TikTok and more than 50 other Chinese-made apps, including WeChat and Baidu Maps, after its military clashed with Chinese soldiers at their disputed border in the Himalayas. New Delhi claimed the apps were “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India”.
