The World Trade Organization and the Caribbean Development Bank inked a Memorandum of Understanding to boost the "capacity, accessibility and availability of trade resources," to both organizations' members, the CDB announced. The MoU will aid in the implementation of the WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement and its Agreement on Fisheries and Subsidies agreed to at the 12th Ministerial Conference, the bank said. The agreement will further speed along other initiatives to drop technical barriers to trade, "address Sanitary and Phytosanitary issues and create mechanisms for the agencies to partner to improve capacity building."

The World Trade Organization needs to "update the WTO rulebook" if its members are to address the issues plaguing global food markets, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at an Oct. 24 retreat on trade and agriculture, the WTO said. The retreat included two plenary sessions at which farm trade and food security experts discussed the challenges facing the agriculture sector and subsequent policy responses. In her opening remarks, Okonjo-Iweala noted that trade distortions and protectionism "remain a major problem," with "persistent under-investment in research, infrastructure and other public goods" leading to stagnating agricultural productivity. Okonjo-Iweala said items including "public stockholding for food security purposes, market access, cotton, a proposed special safeguard mechanism and improving transparency remain outstanding in the farm trade negotiations."

The World Trade Organization and the World Customs Organization held a joint workshop Oct. 17 to discuss the periodic update of the Harmonized System, the WTO said. Parties to the workshop mulled over how updates to the HS could affect legal instruments recording tariffs and other commitments by WTO members with respect to trade in goods, in particular on schedules of concessions, the WTO said.

Morocco told the World Trade Organization Oct. 17 that it started a safeguard investigation on inner tubes for bicycles, velocipedes, motorcycles and scooters, the WTO said. Morocco said it will send questionnaires to the domestic producers and importers of the subject goods. Other concerned parties seeking a questionnaire or to participate in the investigation must contact the country's Commerce Ministry via fax or email by Oct. 24.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who is retiring from Congress at year's end, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that he was disappointed there were no trade items in the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science (CHIPS) Act. "But I’m ready to negotiate a grand bargain on trade in this lame-duck session," he said in a video address Oct. 17. Portman was scheduled to participate in a roundtable of former U.S. trade representatives but was traveling overseas on an official congressional trip.

The World Trade Organization Oct. 12 announced the three arbitrators who will preside over the Colombia and EU arbitration proceeding over Colombia's antidumping duties on frozen fries from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands: Jose Alfredo Graca Lima, Alejandro Jara and Joost Pauwelyn. Graca Lima will serve as the chair. A dispute panel previously found that Colombia violated the AD agreement. It said Colombia's investigating authority failed to look at whether the use of third-country sales prices for calculating normal value was appropriate instead of domestic sales prices, among other things (see 2210110022).

The World Trade Organization will hold Trade and Environment Week Oct. 17-21 in Geneva in person and virtually, the WTO said Oct. 13. Seventeen sessions set up by WTO members, the WTO Secretariat and nongovernmental organizations will be bookended by meetings of the WTO's Committee on Trade and Environment. The events will feature discussions on finding sustainable solutions to environmental problems via multilateral trade, the WTO said. This year is the third time the event has been organized.

India told the World Trade Organization Oct. 11 that it initiated a safeguard investigation on poly vinyl chloride suspension resin with residual vinyl chloride monomer above two parts per million, the WTO announced. India started the investigation Sept. 16 and said all interested parties can make their views on the matter known within 30 days from Sept. 16 to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade.

Colombia and the EU initiated an arbitration proceeding at the World Trade Organization to look over a dispute panel's findings in a proceeding on Colombia's antidumping duties on frozen fries from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, the WTO said. Colombia circulated the notice of appeal Oct. 10 and started the arbitration proceeding under Article 25 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding.

Brazil wants to join the WTO's plurilateral Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft, the WTO said this week. Switzerland's Jean-Marie Meraldi, chair of the committee, said he knows Brazil is prepping further information for its application, which was submitted in June, and that he would set up an informal meeting for signatories to talk about the documents. Thirty-three WTO countries are signatories to the agreement, and the latest member to accede was North Macedonia in 2019.