Topic: “Convenient Compliance: China’s Industrial Policy Staying One step Ahead of WTO Enforcement”
Time: 7:00-9:00 pm
Date: June 10, 2015
Venue: SIS Building C105
Host: Dr.Wang Yong, Professor, School of International Studies; Director, Center for International Political Economy at Peking University
Speaker: Dr. Seung-Youn Oh, Assistant Professor, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Language: English
Dr. Seung-Youn Oh, CURRENT ACADEMIC POSITIONS
: Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, 2013- ; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Affiliated faculty, Center for the Study of Contemporary China, 2013-. PREVIOUS ACADEMIC POSITIONS: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for the Study of Contemporary China, 2012-2013; École Supérieure Des Sciences Commerciales D’angers, Shanghai, PRC Visiting Lecturer, Spring 2009-Fall 2012; Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, PRC Visiting Scholar, Institute of World Economics and Politics, 2009-2010.
Through case studies of China’s WTO trade disputes in the automobile and wind turbine sectors, I argue that China’s compliance with WTO rulings reflects Beijing’s skillful navigation through the WTO’s dispute-resolution process rather than socialization to international norms. China liberally implements industrial policies and removes them after they come into dispute at the WTO—strategies that I characterize as “convenient compliance.” By the time China removes the challenged measures, it often no longer needs them, since it has already achieved its goals and can still build up a reputation as a responsible WTO member by complying with the organization’s rulings. The dynamics of the global supply chain certainly complicate foreign business groups’ interests and countries’ domestic political calculations regarding trade disputes with China.
