As the US and China both impose tariffs on each other, China has turned to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The global trade body, which oversees trade that goes between countries, is caught in the crossfire as it seeks to find common ground between China and the US.

In China's case, it has elevated its tariff complaints to the global trade governing body, after the US went ahead with its tariffs on about $200 billion on Chinese goods. SCMP says that these will take effect in September. However, the US decided to up the level of its threat by going to the WTO with a complaint of its own, and China isn't the only nation written on the complaint. Countries like Canada, Mexico, Turkey, and the European Union are included in the complaint.

It is because of this that the World Trade Organization is caught between the crossfire. Trump is doing grossly nationalistic policies, while the WTO is in a dilemma of sorts; it needs to rule how it has always done as a multinational party that belongs to everyone.

This is echoed by WTO head Roberto Azevedo, the man tasked to steer the global trade body through this problem. When asked by the Associated Press, through Global News, Azevedo answered that US president Donald Trump's concern for the American people is honorable. However, it could backfire, causing more problems than the solutions it's supposed to create for the American people.

The WTO head further explained that Trump isn't the only leader with this idea; every leader of any country wants to look out for their country's workers. Where there are workers, he said, there need to be improvements to work conditions as well as salaries, something Trump is pointing out in creating the tariffs. But these actions, Azevedo pointed out, aren't the end solution.

Even the WTO is in danger of getting the US government's ire. Trump has recently pointed out that the WTO is being 'unfair' to the US and it might decide to leave the organization, something that hasn't happened in a long time and something that Azevedo thinks the US won't do.

The WTO's ruling is crucial in the repair of global trade. On one hand, if it rules in the side of those the US is against, it could risk making the US throw tantrums to the point of leaving. China, on the other hand, could ultimately bear the brunt, should the WTO rule in favor of the US.

Whatever the decision is, the WTO-with its lengthy deliberation process-looks to tread lightly.