In recent years, the US has frequently accused China of being the main source of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals and blamed China for its domestic fentanyl crisis. On the evening of February 1 (EST), the US even announced an additional 10 percent tariff on imports from China, using issues such as fentanyl as a pretext. Such views and action of the US politicians will not help solve the problem but only cause severe damage to the multilateral trading system.

The fentanyl issue in the US is essentially a domestic crisis. Telling China to take the medicine when the US is sick itself cannot make its own problems disappear. The root cause of fentanyl issue lies within the US, but it readily scapegoats other countries for its domestic crises. During Trump's first term, he linked the fentanyl abuse issue to such political issues as the national public health emergency, building a wall at the southern border, and the China-US trade war. By comparison, China is one of the countries with the strictest and most thoroughly enforced anti-drug policies in the world. In 2019, China became the first country in the world to officially put all fentanyl-related substances under control. According to reports from US Customs and Border Protection and other anti-drug law enforcement agencies, since September 2019, the US has not seized any fentanyl substances originating from China. In this context, the US insists on dramatizing the issue and intentionally announces that China is the largest source of fentanyl precursor chemicals entering the US, which only lays bare its ulterior motives.

The unilateral sanctions imposed by the US largely violate the basic principles of the WTO. Both China and the US are members of the WTO. Pursuant to Article I of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), trade treatment among WTO members shall be provided in a non-discriminatory manner. However, the unilateral sanctions imposed by the US on specific countries or enterprises are essentially discriminatory treatment. Such discriminatory treatment undermines fair competition among WTO members and poses a potential threat to multilateral trade rules. Additionally, the US practices violate the principle of national treatment in Article III of GATT. That article requires that imported like products must not be accorded unfavorable treatments based on their origin after entering the territory of a WTO member. Sanctions may directly restrict the import of legal drugs or their precursor chemicals, resulting in discrimination against imported goods from a foreign country.

WTO exception clauses cannot justify the unilateral sanctions imposed by the US. The US may invoke Article XX of GATT, the "General Exceptions" clause, to defend its sanctions. According to Article XX of GATT, WTO members may take necessary trade restrictive measures to protect human life or health. However, the application of this exception is subject to strict conditions. The invoking members are required to demonstrate that their measures are necessary and directly related to the objective, while not using the exception as a pretext for disguised trade protectionism. The current sanctions may threaten the normal trade of legal drugs and their precursor chemicals. Moreover, the US may invoke Article XXI of GATT, the "Security Exceptions" clause, arguing that the relevant measures are to protect "essential national security interests". In previous cases such as Russia-Traffic in transit (DS512) concerning restrictions on transit transportation, the WTO has gradually clarified that the use of security exceptions is not entirely unrestricted. Members must demonstrate a reasonable connection between their measures and essential national security interests while avoiding measures that are overly broad or discriminatory. However, in the recent years, the US has continuously expanded the scenarios for applying national security exceptions, from steel and aluminum products, automobiles and parts, to foreign direct investment, international students and scholars, and even garlic and short videos. Such abuse of the security exceptions by the US has been widely criticized.

The unilateral sanctions imposed by the US will have serious negative international repercussions. The frequent use of unilateral sanctions by the US not only violates the core rules of the WTO but also disrupts the international trade order and multilateral cooperation momentum. In particular, abusing exception clauses may prompt other countries to question the fairness and efficacy of WTO rules, and exacerbate the trend toward fragmentation of the global trading system. The unilateral sanctions imposed by the US will also weaken anti-drug cooperation between China and the US Sanctions against China may also force fentanyl precursor transactions into the dark web or through third countries and make law enforcement even more difficult.

China is a firm participant in and a true contributor to the global anti-drug cause. China was the first country to officially schedule all fentanyl substances as a class in 2019, covering not only the 100 plus types of fentanyl substances discovered at that time but also a large amount of possible isomers and derivatives, far beyond the requirements of international conventions. China also supplements the list of controlled substances dynamically through the Measures for the Administration of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Drugs for Non-medical Use to ensure that the speed of scheduling does not lag behind the speed of drug mutation. Currently, China has put in place a regulatory system covering all categories and chains of fentanyl. Strict control is exercised over the production, operation, import and export of all varieties of precursor chemicals subject to regulation. Exports involving fentanyl and its precursors must obtain the approval from the National Medical Products Administration, and be included in the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) for tracking. It can be said without doubt that China has implemented a very rigorous regulatory for fentanyl-related substances.

The solution lies in strengthening regulation and cooperation. The way out of the US fentanyl crisis is strengthening domestic regulation and enhancing international cooperation rather than blame-shifting and finger-pointing. The sources of fentanyl and its precursors are so diverse that although China has made every effort to strengthen regulation, there may still be illicit ways to evade scheduling through structural modifications or to bypass regulations through black market transactions, disguised exports, and transit through third countries. The US should first and foremost face domestic regulatory loopholes head-on and work with other countries including China to solve this global drug issue via multilateral approaches. The anti-drug issue is a global challenge and by no means solely China's responsibility. The blame-shifting and unilateral sanctions by the US will not help solve its domestic crisis but ruin the potential for China-US anti-drug cooperation. China has always called for global governance and worked with US in anti-drug efforts. Since the establishment of the working group on anti-drug cooperation between China and the US in 2024, China has been actively promoting in-depth anti-drug cooperation between the two countries to jointly address the global drug issue based on "mutual respect, managing differences, and mutually beneficial cooperation". Last November, the 10th China-US Anti-Drug Intelligence Exchange Meeting was held in Shanghai, where both sides fully exchanged opinions and suggestions and further clarified the direction of cooperation. The US should cherish China's goodwill and maintain the hard-won anti-drug cooperation momentum between China and the US

The author is a professor at School of International Organizations, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn