The U.S. will make a statement in the dispute on the U.S. origin marking requirements for goods from Hong Kong during the World Trade Organization's Jan. 26 dispute settlement body meeting, the WTO said. A dispute panel ruled against the U.S. national security defense of its trade measure requiring goods from Hong Kong to be labeled as being made in China (see 2212220029).

Expect new EU action at the World Trade Organization in 2024, four Akin attorneys said in a Jan. 23 blog poost. With the exceptions of 2023 and 2007, the EU has filed at least one complaint every year since 1995, and is expected to "go back on the offensive" by starting at least one or two WTO spats this year, the attorneys said.

Turkey's Alparslan Acarsoy, chair of agriculture negotiations at the World Trade Organization, told negotiators to focus "more specifically and concretely" on outcomes for the 13th Ministerial Conference, set to be held Feb. 26-29, the WTO said. Reporting on consultations with WTO members during the Jan. 16-17 agriculture talks, Acarsoy said that most members think they will not be able to agree on "modalities" laying out formulas for new commitments, and that the ministerial rather stands as a stepping stone for the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference. But results on agriculture from MC13 are still attainable in the form of an "acknowledgment of the work undertaken in the agriculture negotiations so far, including recent submissions, as a basis for work after MC13," he said. General objectives and timetables could also surface that will stand as achievements for MC13.

World Trade Organization members on Jan. 15 agreed that as the basis for talks in the run-up to the 13th Ministerial Conference, they would use the most recent draft text on addressing subsidies promoting overcapacity and overfishing, the WTO announced. Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, chair of the fisheries subsidies talks, said members over the next four weeks will use the draft to finalize a "clean" text for MC13, which will be held Feb. 26-29 in the United Arab Emirates. The WTO said members will hold meetings from Jan. 15 to Feb. 9 to "go through the whole text." This period is being dubbed "Fish Month" at the WTO.

World Trade Organization members will vote on the accession of Timor-Leste to the global trade body during the Feb. 26-29 Ministerial Conference, the WTO announced. Talks pertaining to Timor-Leste's accession wrapped up in just over seven years, which is a record for the accession of a least-developed country, the WTO said.

World Trade Organization members attending the 13th Ministerial Conference Feb. 26-29 will vote on Comoros' accession to the global trade body. Members agreed on the terms of Comoros' membership on Jan. 9, the body announced. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stressed the importance of least-developed nations, like Comoros, joining the WTO.

Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, the chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations at the World Trade Organization, sent a draft text on the second wave of fisheries subsidies talks to get negotiations "over the finish line" at the 13th Ministerial Conference to be held in February 2024, the WTO announced. Gunnarsson said work will resume after the holidays "with a 'fish month' of continuous negotiations" that will last until mid-February, when texts for MC13 must be completed.

Informal negotiations on revising the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement rules "are nearing their conclusion," Marco Molina, the Guatemala deputy permanent representative, told members of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body at its Dec. 18 meeting. Molina said the goal is to have a "fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024," according to the WTO.

India appealed an April World Trade Organization panel report that said its duties on information and communications technology goods destined to the EU violated India's tariff commitments, the WTO announced Dec. 14 (see 2304170018). The EU, Japan and Taiwan each have brought cases to the WTO to dispute the Indian tariffs, and India filed a similar appeal of Japan's case against the tariffs in May (see 2305250056). The WTO can't address the appeals because it doesn't have a functioning appellate body (see 2311200078).

Gambia and the U.K. formally accepted the agreement on fisheries subsidies on Dec. 13, the World Trade Organization announced. Fifty-five members have now accepted the deal, which is half the two-thirds majority needed for ratification. As a coastal nation, "Gambia recognizes the critical role of sustainable fisheries for our national economy and the well-being of future generations," Trade Minister Baboucarr Ousmaila Joof said. U.K. official Andrew Mitchell called the deal a "landmark agreement."