Turkey started arbitration proceedings with the EU over Turkey's measures on the production, import and marketing of pharmaceutical products, the World Trade Organization said April 28. The proceedings were established under the Dispute Settlement Understanding to review the findings of a WTO dispute panel on the Turkish measures. The report found that Turkey has set up a system to prioritize domestic pharmaceutical products over like imported products in its review of applications for market authorization, which the panel concluded is "inconsistent with" the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The WTO said Turkey and the EU agreed on procedures for arbitration to "decide any appeal from any final report."
The World Trade Organization's 12th Ministerial Conference is officially set to take place June 12-15 at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, the WTO announced. The ministerial has been rescheduled multiple times due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
World Trade Organization members affirmed their commitment to engage in discussions over its dispute settlement system at the April 27 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body, the WTO said. The biggest point of contention concerns appointments to the WTO's Appellate Body. The U.S., which has long blocked appointments to the body, hindering its ability to function, said it doesn't support the current proposal to begin appointing members to the Appellate Body.
The U.S. and other World Trade Organization members called out China yet again for failing to fully submit its subsidies to the WTO during the April 26-27 meeting of the Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, a person with knowledge of the meetings told reporters in an email. The U.S. pointed out that after examining certain financial statements of certain fossil fuel companies in China, it found that the Chinese government granted financial grants totaling over $1.9 billion in 2020 that were not reported to the WTO. Apart from asking China to clarify why these grants were not reported, the U.S. also asked China to clarify whether distant water fishing enterprises are completely tax exempt. In response, China asked the U.S. to look at its relevant enterprise income tax law provisions, which the U.S. found uninstructive. Also during the meeting, other WTO members -- namely, Brazil, Morocco, China and Russia -- brought up complaints about U.S. countervailing duty action. In particular, China blasted the U.S.'s "abusive use" of "adverse facts available" in CVD cases, while Russia said the U.S. continued to use flawed practices resulting in the finding of subsidies where none exist.
The World Trade Organization published the agenda for the April 27 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body. It includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of recommendations adopted by the DSB on: antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. A status report is also expected from Indonesia on measures relating to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products; and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products. Further, numerous countries, excluding the U.S., will propose nominations for a list of governmental and nongovernmental panelists to serve on the DSB.
The World Bank, International Monetary Fund, U.N. World Food Program and the World Trade Organization called for coordinated action to address growing food security threats in an April 13 joint statement. As a response to the looming crisis, the heads of the organizations proposed providing emergency food supplies and financial support, facilitating "unhindered trade," and investing in sustainable food production.
Global gross domestic product growth is set to slow to pre-COVID-19 levels of around 3.1% to 3.7% for 2022 due to Russia's war in Ukraine, the World Trade Organization said. Pulling the stat from an April 11 note from the WTO Secretariat, the WTO cited a global economic simulation model projecting that the crisis in Ukraine could lower global GDP growth by 0.7%-1.3%. Global trade growth could be 2.4%-3%, slashed from the 4.7% mark the WTO forecast in October, the WTO said.
World Trade Organization members reached an agreement March 31 that will help address the continuing "underfill" of tariff rate quotas on agricultural imports by some importing members, the WTO said. TRQs allow certain agricultural goods to be imported at lower duties up to a specified amount, with increased duties applied to amounts over the limit. The mechanism was agreed to as a means of allowing exporters some access to other countries’ markets when the normal tariffs on imports are high.
The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body released the agenda for its April 8 meeting being held to discuss a joint request from South Korea and the U.S. for a decision by the Dispute Settlement Body regarding U.S. safeguard measures on imports of large residential washers. It is the only item on the agenda. According to the agenda for the March 28 meeting of the DSB, a dispute settlement panel was to provide its report on the U.S.'s safeguard measures on imports of large residential washers (see 2203210009).
World Trade Organization Deputy Director-General Anabel Gonzalez touted the need for "trade diversification, not decoupling" in the face of COVID-19 pandemic- and geopolitical-related supply chain disruptions, the WTO said. Speaking at the Global Solutions Summit on March 28, Gonzalez attempted to jolt some confidence back into the multilateral trading system by discussing imports as a tool to absorb shocks to global supply chains. A further tool is the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement that certain WTO members have made great strides in implementing, "but more efforts are needed to fully enjoy its benefits," she said.