A World Trade Organization dispute panel rejected China's claim that its retaliatory tariffs in response to Section 232 tariffs were justified because the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs were a safeguard in disguise.
China's Ministry of Commerce on Aug. 11 released a report covering "WTO Compliance of the United States." The report says China is concerned about U.S. policies and how they affect the World Trade Organization's rules-based trading system. A spokesperson for the ministry said China is using the report to call on the U.S. to abide by its commitments to the trade body, according to an unofficial translation.
More than 230 environmental groups sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai asking her to seek climate peace clauses as she talks with the EU, countries participating in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and countries in the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity.
The World Trade Organization released panel reports covering two disputes between the U.S. and India after both countries came to a mutual solution. The countries in July told the Dispute Settlement Body they reached a solution in the disputes, including one disagreement over U.S. tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum and another involving India's imposition of additional duties on certain goods from the U.S. The mutually agreed solution came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the White House in June and was announced in conjunction with the resolution of other spats between the nations at the WTO (see 2307190064).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is requesting comments on how Russia is complying with its World Trade Organization commitments, including in its import regulation, export regulation, subsidies, non-tariff barriers, intellectual property rights enforcement, rule of law issues, and trade facilitation, or other issues.
Anabel Gonzalez, one of the World Trade Organization's deputy directors-general, said in a farewell column that although progress is being made on improving the WTO, "governments face some tough choices in the months and years to come to deal with pressing matters that, if left unchecked, could seriously erode the multilateral trading system and damage trade as an engine of growth and prosperity."
Indonesia launched a safeguard investigation on slag wool, rock wool and similar mineral wools in bulk, sheets or rolls, it told the World Trade Organization's Committee on Safeguards July 27. The investigation also will cover intermixtures of slag and rock wool, WTO said. Indonesia's Safeguards Committee said it will hold a hearing on Aug. 10 to give WTO members with an interest in the case to present their views, WTO said, adding that interested parties must submit their evidence and views by Aug. 7.
World Trade Organization members delivered "the first potential outcome on WTO reform" to be presented at the 13th Ministerial Conference by agreeing to a set of measures to boost the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB) "as a transparency tool," while making Trade Policy Reviews (TPRs) more efficient, the WTO said. Coming up with the measures during a July 26 meeting on the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM), the members focused on implementing an improved information technology system to better facilitate the questions and answers process during TPRs.
The Dominican Republic violated its World Trade Organization commitments under the Anti-Dumping Agreement when imposing duties on corrugated steel bars from Costa Rica, a World Trade Organization dispute panel said in a July 27 report. The panel said the Dominican Republic's Regulatory Commission on Unfair Trade Practices and Safeguard Measures "failed to comply with the requirement" to make the comparison between the export price and normal value with sales made at "nearly as possible the same time."
The World Trade Organization's dispute settlement body during its July 28 meeting agreed to the EU's request to create a compliance panel concerning whether the U.S. fully complied with a prior panel ruling on its countervailing duties on ripe olives from Spain. During the meeting, the EU said further action was needed given the U.S. failure to fully implement the ruling and engage with the EU, a Geneva-based trade official said in an email. The U.S. said it was disappointed the bloc requested the panel, adding that under a procedural understanding between it and the EU, the U.S. accepts the compliance panel, the official said.