This ongoing dispute at the WTO is over subsidies to Chinese aluminum producers.

The United States has notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) secretariat that it has requested dispute consultations with China regarding the country’s alleged subsidies to primary aluminum producers.

The United States alleges that loans and other types of financing to primary aluminum producers and the Chinese government’s provision of coal, alumina, and electricity to one such producer are subsidies that seem to be having adverse effects on US interests.

As a consequence, at the start of 2017, the US government presented a document which sets out these arguments.

The WTO is the multilateral sphere for settling disputes over barriers to trade that may harm specific sectors in member countries.