World Trade Organization members agreed to include discussions on COVID-19 pandemic preparedness, climate change and plastics pollution in the work plan as part of the Triennial Review of the Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement, the WTO said. Participants at the Nov. 10-12 Committee on TBT meeting also reviewed 89 specific trade concerns involving labeling, testing and product safety, the WTO said. "The Triennial Review is an opportunity to improve the work of the committee," said Elisa Olmeda, the new TBT Committee chair. "It helps members keep up with new topics and improve their work in the areas of transparency and standards setting. The review keeps us dynamic, informed and ensures a better implementation of the TBT Agreement." Environmental measures dominated the discussion, the WTO said. Issues discussed included the carbon footprint of batteries, circular economy, plastic waste management, hazardous chemical classification and vehicle emissions.
While the World Trade Organization's upcoming 12th Ministerial Conference presents an opportunity to start meaningful discussion over revising the globe's leading multilateral trading body, the event will lack an immediate solution to pressing issues such as appellate body reform or an end to the all-purpose member veto, a former WTO deputy director-general said. Speaking at a Nov. 18 event on MC12 hosted by the Washington International Trade Association, Alan Wolff, now a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, also explored the leadership dynamics that will be in play at the Nov. 30-Dec. 3 conference.
Costa Rica Ambassador Gloria Abraham Peralta, who chairs the World Trade Organization's agriculture negotiations, plans to release "as soon as possible" a revised draft negotiation text for an agriculture package ahead of the Nov. 30-Dec. 3 12th Ministerial Conference, the WTO said. Peralta also said she aims to submit her report to the Trade Negotiations Committee Nov. 19 to capitalize on this "critical time" ahead of MC12. The first draft negotiation text for an MC12 agriculture package was introduced July 29. The main negotiation topics were "domestic support, market access, export restrictions, export competition, cotton, public stockholding for food security purposes (PSH) and a special safeguard mechanism (SSM) as well as cross-cutting transparency issues," the WTO said.
The top trade officials in Japan, the U.S. and the European Union announced that they are restarting the trilateral discussions on how to address the challenges "posed by non-market policies and practices of third countries," U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said Nov. 17. They said they will meet on the margins of the World Trade Organization conference in Geneva. Former USTR Robert Lighthizer began these talks, which produced a statement (see 1901090063) that said they aimed to write text on disciplines for industrial subsidies to be considered at the WTO, and also that they were working on the outlines of new rules on forced technology transfers.
The European Union will request a World Trade Organization panel in its ongoing dispute settlement case against Russia's state-owned enterprise procurement practices, the European Commission announced Nov. 17. The EU is challenging Russia's favoring domestic goods and services by state-related entities "to the detriment of EU companies." The EU's panel request will be considered at the next WTO Dispute Settlement Body meeting on Nov. 29.
The World Trade Organization and the Asian Development Bank, along with three other institutions, released a new report Nov. 16 looking into the state of global value chain resilience, finding that GVCs have shown to be resilient in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WTO said Nov. 16. Identifying recent GVC trends, the report notes the increasing role of services and intellectual property and GVCs' importance in the global economic recovery.
Brazil requested a World Trade Organization dispute resolution with the European Union over the EU's measures on certain poultry meat preparations from Brazil, the WTO said. In the request circulated to the WTO Nov. 11, Brazil said that the EU's application of its salmonella food safety criteria on fresh poultry meat and certain poultry meat preparations violates the WTO's Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994. Brazil is taking issue with how the EU's salmonella food safety criteria are less strict for fresh poultry meat than for certain poultry meat preparations. Due to a 2011 regulation, fresh poultry meat imports can be placed on the market unless two specific serotypes of salmonella are detected. Poultry meat preparations, on the other hand, must be pulled from the market if any salmonella serotypes are detected.
Japan pledged to kick in more than $136,000 to the World Trade Organization Fisheries Subsidies Fund for least-developed countries, the WTO said. Set up in 2019, the fund covers travel expenses of less-developed country officials going to Geneva to negotiate over harmful fisheries subsidies. "I thank Japan for helping LDCs to be able to share their priorities," Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said. "If we are to make the WTO rule book more responsive to sustainability challenges and boost the role of the WTO as a multilateral negotiating forum, we need all WTO members to be sitting at the table."
The World Trade Organization launched a new Quantitative Restrictions Database on Nov. 8 -- a platform that allows users to retrieve information on trade restrictions and prohibitions notified by WTO members, the WTO said. The database gives information on COVID-19-related export restrictions, that includes data on the restrictions such as "intended duration" and their "WTO justification." The update streamlines the process for accessing information in the QR notifications and also gives the option to generate charts directly through the platform, the notice said. To date, 84 WTO members have submitted 220 QR notifications to the multilateral trade body, which cover 1,724 notified measures currently in force, the WTO said.
The World Trade Organization chair of fisheries subsidies negotiations introduced new text Nov. 8 to be used for "clause-by-clause" discussions to hammer out the remaining differences on a fisheries agreement ahead of the 12th Ministerial Conference, the WTO said. The conference will run Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the text "represents a good balance that addresses development issues and maintains ambition." The text was released at a meeting of the Negotiating Group on Rules at the Head of Delegation level.