On Tuesday, the US announced it would slap 10-percent tariffs on an extra 200 billion dollars' worth of Chinese goods. China's Foreign Ministry criticized America's latest tariff threat, calling on other countries to oppose Washington's protectionism.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Wednesday that it will lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organization on what it calls US unilateralism. Meanwhile, the WTO is carrying out its seventh review of China's trade policies and practices. Since its entry into the WTO, China has contributed about 30 percent to the world's economic growth. The country has made big cuts to import tariffs, lowered non-tariff barriers, and liberalized the right to trade. 

For the WTO review, CGTN's World Insight invited Mike Bastin, who is a professor at the University of Southampton, to share what he thinks the WTO should do under Washington's protectionism. 

"It perhaps may have to rethink its role, rethink its status," said Professor Bastin.

Since the WTO is representative of an established international trade system and order, Trump has undermined the integrity and legitimacy of international governance by imposing tariffs and starting the “trade-war” between the world’ s two largest economies. People are now turning more than ever to the WTO to look for a way out of the quagmire. According to Professor Bastin, "The WTO needs to have some deep thinking, some critical creative thinking."

As things stand, the WTO needs to unite governments to confront the Trump administration. "It means more and more developed nations, in effect, coming together and uniting even more solidly behind the European governments, Germany in particular, and China, and rising Asian nations against Trump. And I suspect that is what will happen under the authority of the WTO," said Professor Bastin, adding that, "It's really a time to confront Americans."

After all, the trade war is really not going to do anyone any good, he said, noting that "the American public and American companies will suffer because so many of their business’ supply chains depend on imports from Asia and China. Their prices, their costs will increase."