Uzbekistan has ramped up World Trade Organization accession process, the WTO announced. Since the last working party meeting, which took place in March, Uzbekistan "has sustained its technical engagement" on both the bilateral and multilateral fronts, submitted a host of updated documents for the next working party meeting, and "introduced a number of critical policy and institutional measures" to ramp up talks, South Korea's Ambassador Yun Seong-deok, who chairs the working party, said. Uzbekistan's Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjayev laid out various institutional changes to move the negotiations forward, including "the establishment of a special department in the Ministry of Justice for ensuring compliance with WTO rules and the creation of WTO divisions in 20 ministries and agencies."
Dispute settlement understanding talks among World Trade Organization members has been very "intense," though the large issues remain unresolved, Maria Pagan, deputy U.S. trade representative and chief of mission in the Geneva office, said Nov. 20. Speaking at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the upcoming 13th Ministerial Conference, Pagan said discussions started by acknowledging the different parties' interests as opposed to putting text on the table and hashing out the deal.
The World Trade Organization's Committee on Trade in Civil Aircraft on Nov. 17 agreed to Brazil's terms of accession to the Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft, the WTO announced. Brazil will submit the agreement along with its commitments to the nation's National Congress for approval. Brazil originally submitted its application to accede to the deal in June 2022. Marcio Elias Rosa, Brazil's deputy minister and executive secretary of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, highlighted Brazil's "unwavering commitment to the principles of the WTO and the enhancement of international supply chain," WTO said.
The World Trade Organization's Committee on Customs Valuation, meeting Nov. 15, adopted changes to "leverage digital tools more effectively" and adopt the eAgenda platform, which "facilitates for delegations the preparation and follow-up of meetings," the WTO announced. The members also agreed that the Secretariat would organize introductory sessions and post information on the Secretariat's website describing the committee's work "with a view to enhancing transparency."
The U.S. interpretation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade's Article XXI(b) -- which governs trade moves made for national security -- as being wholly self-judging "is unsupported by the text, context, object and purpose, and negotiating history" of the article, four Akin Gump lawyers said in a working paper under the auspices of the Geneva Graduate Institute Centre for Trade and Economic Integration.
World Trade Organization committees could offer a path beyond the Dispute Settlement Body to settle trade-related issues, Baker McKenzie lawyers said in a Nov. 13 blog post. For instance, the Anti-Dumping Practices and Subsidies and Countervailing Measures committees offer a forum to settle "practical and strategic issues" faced by companies engaged in international trade, the post said.
World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations, emphasized the December deadline for members to complete "text-based work for new disciplines on subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing," the WTO said. The DG and committee chair made their comments during the Nov. 6-10 "Fish Week" negotiations, the seventh of their kind, that saw members hold talks on "how the draft disciplines and the provisions for special and differential treatment could be operationalized."
Turkey launched a safeguard investigation on wire rods, it notified the World Trade Organization's Committee on Safeguards on Nov. 3. Turkey said that interested parties can download questionnaires from the investigation page and submit a completed copy to the General Directorate within 30 days from the date the notification was published.
World Trade Organization Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang, in a Nov. 3 report and during a workshop, offered ways for least developed countries to boost their integration into the global trading system, the WTO announced. The report said LDCs should keep building momentum in agriculture talks at the WTO, work with development partners to "overcome domestic and external obstacles to LDCs' increased participation in global trade in services" and actively engage in trade talks.
A recently introduced Senate bill that would impose an import pollution fee likely violates World Trade Organization rules, Simon Lester, former legal affairs officer at the WTO Appellate Body Secretariat, said in a blog post.