Legal Analysis Of The Sino-US RMB Exchange Rate Dispute Under The WTO Framework

RMB exchange rate issue has become a controversial topic in the international community since2001, the United States continue to put pressure on the RMB, U.S. congress presented bills on the RMB exchange rate regularly, accused that China is manipulating its currency or its exchange rate deviates from the equilibrium exchange rate, constitute export subsidy and dumping and violate the relevant rules of the IMF and the WTO. In the domestic the United States tries to force RMB appreciation by legislate regulations, in the international stage, the United States attempts to exchange the dispute to the IMF or WTO. So in this case, it is necessary to analyze the international legal aspects of the exchange rate.In this paper, U.S. allegations and actions are analyzed from a legal perspective, and legal basis are found which U.S. would bring a lawsuit to WTO based on. The author reached a conclusion that WTO has a certain degree of jurisdiction on the exchange rate from GATT Article15, the relationship between the IMF and the WTO, and the WTO general jurisdiction. After a series of analysis of "SCM Agreement" and the "Anti-Dumping Agreement," we conclude that the RMB exchange rate does not constitute export subsidies and dumping which the U.S. has claimed. Further analysis also refuted the U.S. practice of all products from China to impose anti-dumping duties.The real purpose of the United States’actions against the RMB exchange rate is to force RMB appreciation so as to find scapegoat for its domestic manufacturing recession, unemployment and other economic problems and suppress China’s revival. The RMB exchange rate has declined in several times at certain extent since2014, but we can not relax our vigilance, the RMB exchange rate is still facing various challenges. So after a clear understanding of the true intentions of the United States, we must take the initiative to fight back, to take appropriate measures to safeguard our legal rights. It is also the intention of this paper, providing legal defense based on the RMB exchange rate issue and make recommendations for the reform of China’s exchange rate regime.