The U.S. - China Wind Power Dispute

In 2010, China’s rapid development of wind energy, and specifically, its policies to promote wind turbine manufacturing, had resulted in significant loss of market share in the wind turbine market in China for U.S. and other foreign manufacturers. Although China was clearly violating WTO rules with its trade policies, U.S. and other firms were reluctant to bring a dispute to the WTO for fear of retaliation on the part of the Chinese government in the form of loss of access to the Chinese market. As a result, the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) trade union brought the dispute the WTO. Because the trade violations were so clear, China backed down even before the dispute could get out of the first, consultations, phase of the WTO dispute settlement process.