Yes, let’s do some WTO judo on China

A California group, California First Amendment Coalition, is pushing the feds to file a World Trade Organization complaint against China. The grounds? Internet censorship by Beijing is restraint of trade.

Any chance of this flying?

CFAC’s petition rests heavily on arguments first put forth in a 2006 paper by Tim Wu [CQ], a professor at Columbia Law School. In that paper, Wu argued that international trade laws offered companies some protection against government censorship, particularly in cases where this tactic was used to shield domestic companies from international competition.

However, Wu cautioned that WTO members have generally said censorship is a political and not a trade issue. But, he also noted in his paper that the WTO’s Appellate Body has shown an inclination to make broad rulings on such issues.

That said, this is a poor, backhand way to try to get at countries like China for the human rights violations that are often linked with censorship. And that’s why Slick Willie Clinton deserves to rot over the WTO as well as NAFTA, as do Members of Congress from both parties, but especially Democrats, who signed off on both agreements.