The EU on July 26 requested dispute settlement consultations at the World Trade Organization on Taiwan's use of local content criteria for offshore wind energy projects, the European Commission announced.

Coordinators of the World Trade Organization's Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade on July 24 laid out "points of focus" for the three "workstreams" which make up the dialogue's "work plan," the WTO said. The focus points will guide the dialogue's work leading up to the 14th Ministerial Conference.

Fifty-eight World Trade Organization member nations at a July 22 WTO General Council meeting supported an African Group proposal to get an early start to the director-general selection process. The proposal also asks sitting D-G Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to "make herself available to serve a second term," the WTO said. General Council Chair Petter Olberg of Norway said he heard "unanimous, broad and strong support, both for the current D-G to make herself available and to run again, and for the process to be started as soon as possible."

Jordan formally accepted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies July 23, bringing to 81 the number of countries that have accepted the deal. The WTO requires 29 more formal acceptances to reach the two-thirds of membership threshold needed for the agreement to be able to enter into force.

China lifted its antidumping measures on Japanese stainless steel products July 23, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced, according to an unofficial translation.

Iraq resumed its talks on accession to the World Trade Organization on July 18 following a 16-year break in the negotiating process. The WTO said Iraq "reaffirmed its pledge to join" the world body, while noting its "significant economic and legislative reforms."

Madagascar told the World Trade Organization July 18 that it opened on that date a safeguard investigation on certain types of edible vegetable oils, the WTO announced. The island nation said interested parties "must make themselves known" to the country's investigating authority within 30 days of the opening of the investigation.

Comoros and Timor-Leste submitted their acceptances of "WTO Protocols of Accession" and the fisheries subsidies agreement on July 22 to open the General Council meeting, the World Trade Organization announced. The moves set up the two nations to become the 165th and 166th members of the WTO in late August, the trade body said.

The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's July 26 meeting indicates China will request the establishment of a dispute settlement panel on the U.S. government's tax credits for electric vehicles under the Inflation Reduction Act.

The facilitator of the negotiations on World Trade Organization dispute settlement reform, Mauritius' Usha Dwarka-Canabady, said that members have made progress on the "issue of accessibility" but that the topic of the appeals process "might take a bit more time," the WTO said. Reporting on the state of the negotiations on July 18, Dwarka-Canabady said talks must "accelerate."