The World Trade Organization's Informal Working Group on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises approved a new work program March 13 and called for papers on MSMEs provisions in regional trade agreements that will inform the working group's work on this issue. The new work program will center on boosting MSMEs access to information, building capacity to generate inclusion of MSMEs in international trade, providing policy guidance, implementing the 2020 MSMEs package and engaging in the private sector. The U.S. also joined the group, along with Barbados, bringing the total participating countries to 97.

Participants at the March 13 meeting of the World Trade Organization's plastics dialogue discussed the 13th Ministerial Conference and the possibility of slashing plastics pollution, the WTO said. The U.S. also joined as a co-sponsor of the initiative, the WTO announced.

World Trade Organization members recently agreed to establish "information-sharing sessions" as part of the WTO's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea stemmed from consultations held by Cambodia's Ambassador Kemvichet Long, chair of the WTO's Services Council. Discussions will cover the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various service sectors, the trade-facilitative steps introduced by members and the pandemic's impact on less-developed countries.

Seychelles adopted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, making it the third country and first African nation to accept the deal. To take effect, the agreement requires adoption by two-thirds of WTO members. "Healthier seas and oceans are vital for the prosperity and resilience of Seychelles' fisheries and tourism industries. Seychelles' formal acceptance also signals the importance of the Agreement to Africa. I am hopeful this will pave the way for others in the region to follow suit," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said March 10.

The Japanese Cabinet on March 10 greenlighted that nation's participation in the World Trade Organization's multiparty interim appeal arbitration (MPIA) agreement -- an alternative to the trade body's defunct Appellate Body (see 2303010026). The MPIA was initiated in April 2020 as a response to U.S. blocking the nomination process to the Appellate Body. The MPIA process released its first ruling in a dispute over Colombian antidumping duties on frozen fries from several EU countries (see 2212230025).

Meaningful outcomes at the World Trade Organization's 13th Ministerial Conference in February 2024 are "not beyond our reach," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at the first General Council meeting in 2023. Ambassador Didier Chambovey, General Council chair, during the meeting pointed to a host of issues as areas that can be addressed by MC13, including WTO reform efforts such as dispute settlement, negotiating and monitoring functions, and institutional issues.

The World Trade Organization on March 7 announced chairpersons for various WTO committees. Among the WTO bodies, the General Council will be led by Athaliah Lesiba Molokomme of Botswana; the Dispute Settlement Body will be led by Petter Olberg of Norway; the Trade Policy Review Body will be chaired by Saqer Abdullah Almoqbel of Saudi Arabia; and the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights will be headed by Pimchanok Pitfield of Thailand.

The victories that countries won at the World Trade Organization over American steel and aluminum tariffs (see 2212090060) will only complicate the discussion on how to bring back binding dispute settlement, panelists said at a Washington International Trade Association event.

The first ruling from the World Trade Organization's multiparty interim appeal arbitration arrangement (MPIA), an alternative to the defunct Appellate Body, put on display the various new facets of the new MPIA, according to one of the arbitrators who is also a Geneva Graduate Institute law professor. The ruling involved Colombian antidumping duties on frozen fries from certain EU countries, with novelties including word and time limits, a prehearing conference, and an online recording of the hearing, Joost Pauwelyn said in a March 6 blog post.

World Trade Organization members are looking to finalize a negotiating text on investment facilitation for development by the middle of 2023, the WTO said following a round of consultations and a March 3 plenary meeting. In the consultations, members restated their support for the "sunset approach," which would set a deadline to discard certain issues that don't have wide backing.