Trade ministers from Japan, the U.S., the EU, the U.K., France, Canada, Germany and Italy said they will work to reach an agreement on World Trade Organization reform "with the view to having a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024." The binding appellate level of dispute settlement at the WTO has been defunct since late 2019, because the U.S. blocked all appointments to the appellate body.

A World Trade Organization panel will review U.S. antidumping duties on oil country tubular goods from Argentina after Argentina's request for a dispute panel was granted by the Dispute Settlement Body, the WTO announced. Argentina's request was the second in its case arguing that the duties violate WTO rules and that the U.S. illegally cumulated imports in assessing injury caused by the subject imports.

Senior trade officials met at the World Trade Organization Oct. 23 and 24 to "take stock of progress on issues on the negotiating agenda" in the run-up to the 13th Ministerial Conference, the WTO said. On Oct. 23, WTO members adopted a decision to aid least-developed countries in graduating from LDC status and broke out into sessions on agriculture, trade and development and dispute settlement reform. The next day, breakout sessions covered trade and industrial policy and trade and environmental sustainability.

Fiji formally accepted the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies deal Oct. 24, making it the 52nd WTO member to do so. The announcement comes a day after seven other member countries also accepted the agreement, pushing it nearly half-way to the two-thirds threshold needed for full ratification. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala welcomed the development, noting that Fiji "is the first Pacific Island developing nation to do so, and we are confident it will not be the last. We hope this action will encourage not only the Pacific but also all other members that have not yet deposited [an instrument of acceptance] to do so.”

Seven World Trade Organization member countries formally accepted the fisheries subsidies agreement on Oct. 23, pushing the number of WTO members to have done so to 51. This number is 46% of the total number needed for the agreement to take effect, the WTO said. In all, Albania, Australia, Botswana, Cuba, Cote d'Ivoire, South Korea and St. Lucia accepted the deal as part of a two-day meeting of senior officials Oct. 23-24 in Geneva. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, noting that Fiji is expected to accept the deal soon, said the announcement "represents a leap in the right direction."

World Trade Organization members participating in the Information Technology Agreement and the ITA Expansion Agreement on Oct. 19 approved Timor-Leste's bid to participate in the agreements, the WTO announced. As a result, the ITA Schedules will be incorporated into Timor-Leste's WTO goods schedule, making up a part of the nation's "final WTO accession package." Per the ITA commitments, after Timor-Leste joints the WTO, the country will eliminate duties on 242 products, amounting to 64% of its ITA-related tariff lines, the WTO said, and the duties on the remaining 114 ITA products will be scrapped on Jan. 1, 2027. As for the ITA Expansion Agreement, Timor-Leste will drop import duties on 240 of 488 tariff lines upon accession, with another 333 tariff lines reduced to zero after three years.

The World Trade Organization's Committee on Market Access during its Oct. 16-17 meeting discussed ways to revise the committee's functioning and agreed to carry out a thematic session on supply chain resilience in November, the WTO said.

The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's Oct. 26 meeting includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of DSB recommendations on: antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. Status reports also are expected from Indonesia on measures related to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products, and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products.

Katrin Kuhlmann, a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University, and Devi Ariyani, the executive director of the Indonesia Service Dialogue Council, both said they hope the World Trade Organization's moratorium on e-commerce duties is extended, during a Peterson Institute for International Economics event on Oct. 18. Although the moratorium has been regularly extended since 1998, a few countries are preparing to introduce tariffs on digitally transferred goods before the moratorium's expiration in March 2024, Cecilia Malmström, a nonresident senior fellow at PIIE, said at the event.

North Macedonia accepted the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Government Procurement, queuing up the deal to enter into force in the country Oct. 30, WTO announced. The agreement will ensure that North Macedonia receives new market access opportunities while liberalizing its own procurement market, WTO said. North Macedonia will become the agreement's 49th member. The deal defines commitments related to procuring entities; the goods, services and construction services now open to foreign competition; the "threshold values above which procurement activities will be open to foreign" bidders; and exceptions to the agreement, WTO said.