World merchandise trade dipped 0.8% in the third quarter of 2021 following four straight quarters of expansion, the World Trade Organization said, pointing to supply chain disruptions, with imports in North America and Europe weaker than forecast; production input shortages, in particular semiconductor shortages; and rising COVID-19 cases as the omicron variant recently emerged, as the causes. Trade volume was up 11.9% year-to-date through September, although this was slightly lower than the WTO's most recent trade forecast, the trade organization said. With export and import prices rising sharply, the value of world merchandise climbed 24% year-on-year in the third quarter. This boost was fueled by primary commodities including fuels, which saw prices double from the third quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of 2021, the WTO said.
The U.S. will not appeal a recent World Trade Organization dispute settlement body ruling which found that its countervailing duties on ripe olives from Spain violated WTO rules, the U.S. said at the Dec. 20 meeting of the DSB. A panel at the DSB found that the U.S. erred when finding that subsidies given to Spanish raw olive growers under the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy were specific to the olive growers, a finding that was inconsistent with measures in the WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (see 2111190028). The U.S., in its comments to the body, said that it will permit the report to be adopted despite expressing being "disappointed" with a few of the panel's findings.
The World Trade Organization found that India is not acting in line with its agricultural commitments, three Dec. 14 panel reports concluded. The panels, which surveyed claims from Brazil, Australia and Guatemala into India's domestic support to sugarcane producers, found that for five consecutive sugar seasons, India gave non-exempt product-specific domestic support to these producers in excess of the permitted 10% level of the total value of sugarcane production. In all three claims, the WTO panel found that India was providing subsidies that run contrary to its WTO obligations via the Production Assistance, the Buffer Stock, and the Marketing and Transportation schemes, and that these schemes are contingent on export performance. With respect to Australia's claims, the panel also found that India's Duty Free Import Authorisation schemes are subsidies contingent on export performance and thus in violation of WTO commitments. The panel, in each case, recommended that India "withdraw its prohibited subsidies under the Production Assistance, the Buffer Stock, the Marketing and Transportation, and the DFIA Schemes within 120 days from the adoption of our Report."
The World Trade Organization published the agenda for the next meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body, set for Dec. 20. The agenda includes status reports by the U.S. 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.
The World Trade Organization released a report recommending ways for landlocked developing countries to avoid trade bottlenecks and high trade costs resulting from their separation from the world's largest markets, the WTO said. "Easing Trade Bottlenecks in Landlocked Developing Countries" addresses the specific challenges these countries face, which include COVID-19 fallout, supply chain troubles and reliance on transit countries for imports and exports. LLDCs' trade costs are 1.4 times higher than those of developing countries with a coastline, the report said.
The delegation from Timor-Leste has continued to hold bilateral meetings with World Trade Organization members regarding its accession to the multilateral trade organization despite the postponement of the 12th Ministerial Conference, the WTO said. The delegation, led by Joaquim Amaral, coordinating minister for economic affairs and WTO accession chief negotiator, met Nov. 27-Dec. 4, and also participated in roundtable discussions about Timor-Leste's prospect of accession to the WTO. The country's goal is to wrap up the final negotiations by the end of 2022, the WTO said. Amaral also gave updates on preparations for the Working Party's third meeting on accession, emphasizing the need for technical assistance and capacity building ahead of his country's accession. The Southeast Asian nation applied for WTO membership in November 2016.
The World Trade Organization's Informal Working Group on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises launched its Trade4MSMEs platform Dec. 2 in a bid to help small companies find "trade-related information that improves their ability to trade internationally," the WTO said. The platform includes guides that give trading firms the key information needed before exporting or importing goods or services, and also provides a list of all the import and export forms needed in various markets, the WTO said. The new tool also will be useful for policymakers and government researchers, as it highlights the best practices and key issues for MSMEs, the WTO said.
After postponing its 12th Ministerial Conference, which was set to start Nov. 30, due to new COVID-19 travel restrictions, the World Trade Organization is now aiming to hold the meeting in person during the first week of March. The WTO delayed the ministerial after Switzerland -- the intended site of the conference -- banned flights from many southern African nations, in response to new information about the Omicron variation of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 found in that region. In its Nov. 29 statement, the WTO emphasized the need for continued negotiations on key issues such as fisheries subsidies and the intellectual property waiver for any COVID-19 vaccines. Trade experts have speculated that the postponement of MC12 will likely mean a slowdown in negotiations on those topics (see 2111290035).
World Trade Organization members heard two requests for dispute panels at the Nov. 29 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body, the WTO said. The European Union sought a panel over Russian state-owned entities' procurement practices, and Costa Rica requested a panel over the Dominican Republic's antidumping duties on corrugated steel bars from Costa Rica.
Maria Pagan, the nominee to lead the U.S. mission at the World Trade Organization, told Senate Finance Committee members that reforming the appellate body is a top priority because "Appellate Body overreaching has shielded China’s non-market practices and hurt the interest of U.S. workers and businesses." She said that appellate body rulings "undermined our ability to protect U.S. workers and businesses from those non-market practices."