The U.S. and China joined the World Trade Organization initiative on trade and environmental sustainability, dubbed the Trade and Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions, as co-sponsors, the WTO said. At the Nov. 4 WTO meeting, members welcomed the additions of the globe's two largest economies and also expressed their support for a draft ministerial statement that would set out goals for advancement in key areas such as trade and climate change.

World Trade Organization members agreed to a draft decision ahead of the 12th Ministerial Conference relating to non-violation and situation complaints in the area of intellectual property, the WTO said. The agreement was reached at the Nov. 5 meeting of the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. The decision effectively extends the moratorium on bringing IP cases to the dispute settlement system on non-violation and situation complaints and allows for continued talks on these issues at the TRIPS Council.

Intermediate goods exports -- that is, shipments of inputs used to make a final product -- rose by 47% year over year in the second quarter of 2021, the World Trade Organization said, citing a new WTO report intended to monitor global supply chain health. After Q1 grew by 20%, the new 47% mark signifies sustained growth and continues the trend of 2021 surpassing 2019 pre-COVID-19-pandemic levels, the report said. Leading the IG export growth charge for the second quarter was Africa, which saw an 88% expansion of its IG exports due to "strong jumps in exports of precious metals and stones such as rhodium, diamonds, copper/copper cathodes and iron ore concentrates," the WTO said. China maintained its high growth of international inputs in Q2, coming in at just over 40%, while Australia's IG exports soared 74% in the quarter, due to high volumes for shipments of iron ore concentrates, wheat and meslin.

World Trade Organization members heard from the Committee on Regional Trade Agreement on Nov. 1 when the chair of the committee provided an update on the committee's transparency mechanism for regional trade agreements, the WTO said. Members also looked over the European Union-Vietnam, U.S.-Canada-Mexico and Australia-Indonesia regional trade agreements as part of the update.

Bilateral and small group discussions ahead of the 12th Ministerial Conference at the World Trade Organization made some progress fisheries subsidies, heads of delegations reported, the WTO said. More than 20 delegations at the Oct. 29 Negotiating Group on Rules meeting reported on the progress, including on special and differential treatment for developing and least-developed countries. The 12th Ministerial will be held Nov. 30 - Dec. 3.

Forty-five members notified the World Trade Organization's Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices of new antidumping measures they imposed during the first six months of 2021, while 14 reported no new AD duties in this period, the WTO said. Delegates at the committee's Oct. 27 meeting also reviewed notifications of new legislation from Colombia, India and the United Kingdom, while continuing to review legislation from Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Peru, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. The WTO's Anti-Dumping Agreement requires members to submit notifications of all preliminary and final antidumping actions that were taken Jan. 1-June 30. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the Dominican Republic, the EU, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, the U.K. and the U.S. submitted notifications, the WTO said. Committee Chair Ahmed Al-Sulaiti of Qatar pointed to the updated handbook as a guide for members' notification obligations under the AD agreement. along with technical assistance available through the WTO Secretariat.

G-20 economies have scaled down their COVID-19-related trade restrictions and showed restraint in putting in place new ones, the World Trade Organization said in a Trade Monitoring Report on G-20 trade measures. The value of trade covered by pandemic-related restrictions, however, exceeds the value under trade-facilitating measures, WTO said. The report shows that from mid-May to mid-October, G-20 economies continued to roll back restrictions adopted at the start of the pandemic, but that trade restrictions coverage is still nearly double that of trade-facilitating measures. Fifty-four percent of 144 COVID-19 restrictive measures had been eased by mid-October, but 18 trade restrictions still remain in place, 17 of them export restrictions, the WTO said.

The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body agreed at its Oct. 26 meeting to set up a dispute panel to look into China's antidumping and countervailing duties on Australian wine, the WTO said. China blocked Australia's panel request at the Sept. 27 DSB meeting. China voiced its regret that Australia went back for a second panel request while also saying that it will vigorously defend its legitimate measures in the panel proceedings, the WTO said. China remains confident that its measures are consistent with WTO rules. Canada, Japan, Brazil, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Turkey, Taiwan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, India, Singapore, Russia, the European Union and Vietnam reserved their third-party rights to participate in the proceedings, the WTO said.

The trade ministers for nearly 30 least-developed countries (LDCs) released a declaration laying out their trade priorities in advance of the 12th Ministerial Conference being held Nov. 30 - Dec. 3, the World Trade Organization said. The priorities include equal access to and faster distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and effective implementation of integration of LDCs into the global trading system. This latter point includes preferential rules of origin decisions, an LDC services waiver and duty-free market access for LDC products, the WTO said. The LDCs also called for a working group on WTO reforms to be launched at MC12. “MC12 should respond adequately to mitigate the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ali Djadda Kampard, Chad’s minister for trade and industry and coordinator of the WTO LDC Group.

Ukraine launched a safeguard investigation on tricone drilling bits Oct. 13, it notified the World Trade Organization, the WTO said Oct. 22. The investigation will cover drilling bits with working parts other than natural or artificial diamond, "regardless of the country of origin and export." Ukraine cited substantial evidence from a national producer that documented increased imports of the subject merchandise could cause injury to the domestic producer. Ukraine's Ministry of Economy will conduct a registration of interested parties within 30 days from the publication of its Oct. 11 notice of the decision to conduct the inquiry.