In a statement, Beijing played down the significance of the panel's ruling, even though the United States heralded it as a major victory in its effort to open China's financial services sector to more foreign competition.
"In fact, China's electronic payments market is already very open," China's Commerce Ministry said. "The panel's decision rejected the U.S. charges that UnionPay was the only service provider, and affirmed that (China's policy) does not prevent foreign service providers from entering China's market."
Although the July ruling found that China UnionPay (CUP) had a monopoly on yuan payment cards issued and used in China, it rejected the U.S. claim that CUP was an "across-the-board monopoly supplier" for all transactions denominated in yuan.
A U.S. diplomat, according to a transcript that did not identify individuals by name, told the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body the United States was disappointed the ruling had stopped short of branding CUP as a "monopoly or exclusive supplier".
China's representative at the meeting said that claim had been the centerpiece of the U.S. case, and China commended the dispute panel for rejecting it.
However, despite China's decision not to appeal, the Chinese official also said that the ruling was not entirely free from error, and China was "troubled" by parts of it.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry, in its statement, said China believed "cooperation and competition" between domestic and foreign companies would help develop its payments market.
"China will continue to push forward with reform and opening up and international cooperation in the electronic payments market," the ministry said.
(Additonal reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Doug Palmer in Washington; Editing by Stephen Nisbet and David Brunnstrom)
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