The International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization launched a Joint Subsidy Platform to "enhance transparency on the use of subsidies," the WTO announced last week. The platform will help users access information on the nature, size and impact of subsidies with a goal of aiding dialogue on their use and design. The heads of all four organizations issued a joint statement saying governments "should not use subsidies to provide a competitive advantage to domestic industry and should seek to minimize the cost and distorting effects on trading partners. Doing this effectively, however, will require building a more common understanding across governments on the appropriate uses and design of subsidies."

India will appeal a World Trade Organization panel report in a case brought by Japan on India's tariff treatment of various information technology products, the WTO announced. But because of the U.S. refusal to seat members on the Appellate Body, the case will stall pending any change in the AB's situation. In the case, the panel said that India's duties violated the 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).

Argentina launched a World Trade Organization dispute over U.S. antidumping measures on Argentinian oil country tubular goods.

The EU adopted the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies agreement, the European Council announced May 25. The deal prohibits subsidies contributing to illegal and unreported fishing, bars subsidies for fishing on the unregulated high seas and imposes sustainability rules for subsidies in relation to the most vulnerable, overfished stocks. The U.S., Canada, Iceland, Seychelles, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates previously accepted the agreement, which was reached at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in June (see 2305160015). The trade body requires a two-thirds threshold for the agreement to come into effect.

World Trade Organization members negatively affected by national security-related trade restrictions may be able to impose retaliatory measures as a way to address the U.S. gripe with the body's review of national security issues, former Office of the U.S. Trade Representative counsel Warren Maruyama and former WTO deputy director-general Alan Wolff said. In a working paper released by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Maruyama and Wolff propose a compromise to the U.S. position that national security claims are nonreviewable.

The United Arab Emirates formally accepted the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, making it the seventh World Trade Organization member to deposit its instrument of acceptance. The trade body requires a two-thirds threshold for the agreement to come into effect. The U.S., Canada, Iceland, Seychelles, Singapore and Switzerland previously accepted the agreement (see 2305100009).

World Trade Organization members held a third round of consultations May 8-11 covering the progress made in undertaking the Work Program of the 12th Ministerial Conference Sanitary and Phytosanitary Declaration, which is meant to address challenges in implementing the Agreement on the Application of SPS Measures. Members laid out proposals to boost the functioning of the committee's work on food safety and animal and plant health, WTO said.

Iceland is the sixth World Trade Organization member to accept the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which needs acceptance from two-thirds of WTO members to come into effect. Iceland also agreed to donate over $562,000 to the WTO Fisheries Funding Mechanism, which provides technical assistance and capacity building to aid developing nations implement the agreement, the WTO said May 10. "Iceland has offered the world important lessons in sustainable fish stock management through successful policy reform, making their early support for the agreement and the funding mechanism especially valuable," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said.

Representatives from Chile and South Korea introduced the latest version of a draft agreement on investment facilitation for development during a May 4 plenary meeting after two days of consultations at the World Trade Organization. The WTO said the goal is to finish negotiations by mid-year.

While the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), an alternative to the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body, may work for the nations that want an appellate level of review of WTO panel decisions, it doesn't necessarily make sense for U.S. purposes, said Jamieson Greer, former chief of staff for the U.S. trade representative and partner at King & Spalding. Speaking at a May 8 Federalist Society event, Greer said that if the U.S. wanted another level of review at the WTO, the government would simply just start staffing up the AB again rather than pursue a solution under the MPIA.