Belize formally adopted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, becoming the 10th country and first Central American country to do so, the WTO announced. A two-thirds majority is needed for the fisheries deal to come into effect. The WTO said Belize's agreement builds on the goals set from a recent meeting between Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Belizean Prime Minister John Briceno. "This agreement holds paramount importance for Belize, given its reliance on marine exports and tourism," Okonjo-Iweala said. "By supporting the elimination worldwide of harmful fisheries subsidies, Belize sends a strong signal to the international community that it is committed to preserving the health and productivity of the oceans, promoting economic growth, and enhancing livelihoods dependent on the marine sector.”

World Trade Organization members made progress during the third "Fish Week" on six new proposals on combating subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing, the WTO announced. Prior to the June 5-9 Fish Week, which consisted of small group talks and two plenary sessions, the WTO received five proposals from Norway; China; Australia, New Zealand and Vanuatu; Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay; and the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States. A sixth proposal from Fiji circulated during the week.

World Trade Organization members agreed to the EU's and India's joint request to give the Dispute Settlement Body more time to consider adopting a panel ruling on India's tariff treatment of information and communications technology products. At the June 15 meeting of the DSB, members agreed to give the DSB until Sept. 19 to adopt the report unless the EU or India appeals the findings or the DSB decides not to adopt the panel ruling, the WTO said. The panel in April found that India's tariffs violated the nation's WTO tariff commitments under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and Article II of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (see 2304170018).

The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body's June 15 meeting will focus on a joint request by the EU and India for a decision on India's tariff treatment of information and communications technology products, according to the agenda. A dispute panel released its report on this spat in April, finding that India's tariffs violated the nation's WTO tariff commitments under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and Article II of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (see 2304170018).

Nigeria formally adopted the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, making it the ninth World Trade Organization member to accept the deal, the WTO announced. A two-thirds majority is needed for the fisheries deal to officially come into effect.

Countries that are a part of the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement adopted a decision regarding the terms of North Macedonia's accession to the agreement, paving the way for the Eastern European nation to become the 49th member of the deal, the WTO announced. North Macedonia will become a party to the deal 30 days after it submits its instrument of accession to the director-general -- a step the country's state secretary said the nation hopes to take "promptly." The deal was struck at a June 7 meeting of the GPA, during which the Dominican Republic and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development participated for the first time as observers, the WTO said.

World Trade Organization members decided on new chairpersons for the 14 subsidiary bodies reporting to the Council for Trade in Goods, the WTO announced. The new chairpersons include Turkey's Aysegul Sahinoglu Yerdes for the Committee on Anti-dumping Practices, New Zealand's James Lester for the Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, Finland's Anna Vitie for the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade and Norway's Kjetil Tysdal for the Committee on Agriculture.

The World Trade Organization released a new Global Trade Portal, allowing users to access real-time trade data, monitor supply chain activities and provide warning of potential disruptions. The portal launched May 31 along with "new dashboards on seaborne trade in wheat and other grains and oil seeds aimed at improving market transparency at a time of food insecurity," the WTO said May 31. The portal will provide "real-time insights" into maritime grain trade based on data from analytics platform Kpler and "visualization tools based on WTO trade statistics and tariff data." The interactive grain and oilseeds dashboard will update every three hours to show short-term trade trends across various agricultural products.

Participants in the World Trade Organization's Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade made "substantial progress" at their May 25 meeting, introducing a draft vision on future negotiations and "elements for a potential outcome at the 13th Ministerial Conference" set to be held in February, the WTO announced. The document "sets out a range of shared principles and priorities for collective actions, with the aim of effectively addressing this challenge" of plastics pollution, the WTO said.

The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body agreed to Indonesia's second bid for a dispute panel on the EU's antidumping and countervailing duties on stainless steel cold-rolled flat products from Indonesia at the May 30 DSB meeting, a Geneva-based trade official emailed reporters this week. Indonesia's first request was denied at a past DSB meeting, prompting the second bid in which the nation said it is entitled to protect its national interests.