UK PM Theresa May
British Prime Minister Theresa May stressed the importance of international maritime law in a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Friday, May's office said in a statement.
"The Prime Minister reiterated the UK's firm commitment to the rules-based international system, including the importance of freedom of navigation and maritime security, in line with international law," the statement issued following a meeting in Brussels added.
Last month, Beijing expressed anger after a British Royal Navy warship sailed close to islands claimed by China in the South China Sea, saying Britain had engaged in "provocation".
Disputes over U.S. tariffs and retaliatory moves by other states have sparked 12 requests for adjudication at the World Trade Organization, signalling an escalation in global trade tensions.The agenda for an Oct. 29 meeting of the WTO's dispute settlement body on Friday confirmed the legal moves, which Reuters reported late on Thursday.The dispute procedure begins with a 60-day window for talks to try to reach a settlement. The meeting agenda show that those talks have failed.By asking for adjudication, the disputants are triggering litigation that could last years.US asks for WTO panel over metals tariff retaliationChina, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Russia and Turkey have all requested that the WTO set up a panel of adjudicators to judge the legality of steel and aluminium tariffs which U.S. President Donald Trump imposed in March.In return, the United States has asked the WTO to adjudicate on tariffs imposed by Canada, China, Mexico and the European Union in response to those U.S. steel and aluminium tariffs.It has also asked for adjudication in a separate case against China. Washington wants to impose tariffs on Beijing for its alleged failure to protect U.S. intellectual property rights.Opponents of the 25 percent U.S. duty on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminium say they breach WTO rules. Washington says they are a national security matter, and therefore outside the WTO's jurisdiction.The wheels of WTO adjudication are slow, and particularly congested at the moment, with a record number of disputes working through the system.The defendants in the disputes can reject the adjudication requests at the Oct. 29 meeting but would have to accept them at the November meeting.Then a search for adjudicators will begin. Once they are appointed, which will take months more, they may take two years or more to report on the disputes.The sides can then appeal, but the United States is threatening to cripple the WTO appeals system by blocking the appointment of judges. 
Clash over Trump tariffs heats up with barrage of WTO litigation
The United States is requesting that a World Trade Organization dispute resolution panel get involved in a clash over international retaliation over U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.The requests, filed on Thursday, cover tariffs by China, the European Union, Canada and Mexico, which followed the United States imposing a 25 percent duty on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminium imports, which it justified on national security grounds.Canada, Mexico and China had also planned to ask for a WTO panel examining those tariffs, according to another government official familiar with the matter. Earlier on Thursday, Norway said that it, the EU and other countries would seek the WTO dispute group's help.Officials representing the countries' trade delegations could not immediately be reached after normal business hours. The WTO did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The dispute marks a new dimension to the ongoing skirmish between the United States and a number of its trading partners as well as the WTO itself, where it has blocked appointments of new judges. The WTO is presiding over a record number of disputes, many of them triggered by Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminium and his trade war with China.Norway earlier said initial consultations with the United States had not led to an agreeable solution, and therefore the Nordic country had joined others in asking the WTO to set up the panel to obtain an independent assessment of the matter."We believe that additional U.S. duty on steel and aluminium is contrary to WTO rules," Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said in a statement."Therefore, together with the EU and several others, we asked today the WTO to establish a dispute resolution panel on the U.S. additional duty," she said.In Brussels, meanwhile, the EU, Norway and Switzerland sought Asian support for free trade, the Iran nuclear deal and fighting global warming at a regional summit that included China, Japan and Russia as a counterbalance to a more protectionist United States.U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC on Wednesday that trade negotiations with China appear to have taken a brief pause, and he tamped down expectations that the countries would make substantial progress toward an agreement at an upcoming G20 meeting.Despite striking a deal with Washington to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mexico and Canada remain subject to the metals tariffs.On Tuesday, EU trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom held talks with Ross in Brussels on improving trade relations, though Washington accused the bloc of moving too slowly in negotiations. 
US asks for WTO panel over metals tariff retaliation
Trade frictions between the United States and China, the world's two biggest economies, have contributed to the slump in China stock markets, Vice Premier Liu He said on Friday.China and the United States are "in touch", Liu told the state news agency Xinhua, without elaborating. Sri Lanka reverses $300-mln China housing deal ahead of PM's India visitExxon Mobil bets big on China LNG, sidesteps trade war
US-China trade frictions contributing to China equity slump