A group of 17 World Trade Organization members announced plans for an interim appeals process to settle disputes between members, according to a Jan. 24 joint statement. The members, including the European Union and China but not the U.S., said they will put in place “contingency measures” to allow for appeals of WTO panel reports “in disputes among ourselves.” The system would only be in place until a reformed WTO appellate body “becomes fully operational,” the statement said.

The ideal of free trade has been imperiled by politicians' inaction in the face of harm by foreign competition, said panelists at a Davos forum on free trade. Roberto Azevedo, director-general of the World Trade Organization, said that free trade is associated with economic growth -- but prosperity also increases the gap between rich and poor. When disparities grow, he said, the answer is not to grow, but to avoid inequality. “The problem is governments are often MIA. They are missing in action. They are seeing inequalities grow, and they do nothing about it,” he said, until there is political upheaval. He said politicians don't consider the economic realities as much as the desire of voters. “An easy answer in the age of disruption is to blame the foreign,” he said. “Imports is an easy target, so why not?”

President Donald Trump, speaking at a press conference in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, said he'll be talking with World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo in Washington on “a whole new structure” for the WTO. “Roberto and I ... are going to do something that I think will be very dramatic,“ he said. Trump said Azevedo and others in his delegation will come to Washington “sometime next week or the week after, and we'll start working on it.”

The U.S. delegation to the World Trade Organization rejected a proposal from countries on how to reform the appellate body (see 1912090031), saying that without understanding how the appellate body's overreach problem developed, there's no reason to believe that restating the constraints on the appellate body's authority will work. In December, when the appellate body ceased to exist because of U.S. refusal to allow new appointees, the National Foreign Trade Council hired Tailwinds Global Strategy's Bruce Hirsh to put forward ideas of how to resolve the impasse

The World Trade Organization may have its first answer to what happens when a party appeals and there's no appellate body to resolve the dispute. The U.S., which killed the appellate body by not agreeing to appoint any replacements, is appealing a compliance report for a case in which India won the argument that the U.S. antidumping and countervailing case against Indian steel didn't fully follow trade law (see 14081205 and 1706090021).

World Trade Organization members should take several steps to resolve the WTO’s dispute settlement system “crisis” (see 1912090031), including better enforcement of the 90-day time frame for appeals and prohibitions on advisory opinions, according to a report by Bruce Hirsch of Tailwind Global Strategies and commissioned by the National Foreign Trade Council that was released Dec. 17. WTO members should also consider issuing guidance on Articles 3.2 and 19.2 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding to clarify that it “does not justify expanding or narrowing the reach of WTO provisions or filling gaps.” In addition, “customary rules of interpretation of public international law” should “not justify gap-filling and expanding or narrowing the reach of WTO provisions,” the report said, and members should better address disagreements surrounding the appellate body’s findings on antidumping issues. Lastly, members should direct the body to “reject party arguments that expand or narrow the reach of agreement provisions or fill gaps in agreements.”

World Trade Organization members have again agreed to extend a moratorium on imposing customs duties on data transfers, the WTO said in a Dec. 10 press release. The moratorium, which has been renewed at every opportunity since 1998, will now remain in effect at least until the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) in June 2020. WTO members, who were meeting as the WTO general council, also agreed Dec. 10 “to continue work under the existing 1998 work programme on e-commerce in the beginning part of 2020,” the release said. “The work in the run-up to MC12 will include structured discussions on issues that would help ministers take an informed decision by MC12.”

The European Union has brought a World Trade Organization dispute against Indonesian export restrictions on raw materials used in stainless steel production, the European Commission said Nov. 21. The restrictions “unfairly limit” EU producer access to these materials, namely nickel, scraps, coal, coke, iron ore and chromium, the commission said. The EU is also “challenging” subsidies that “encourage use of local content by Indonesian producers and give preference to domestic over imported goods,” the commission said, calling the subsidies a violation of WTO rules.

The European Union raised a dispute in the World Trade Organization against what it said are illegal antidumping measures used by Colombia on frozen fries from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, the European Commission said Nov. 14. The commission said the antidumping duties violate WTO rules “both on substance and in terms of the procedure.” Colombia imposes duties ranging from 3 percent to 8 percent on EU imports, affecting nearly 85 percent of EU exports of frozen fries to Colombia, the commission said. The commission has “not received a satisfactory response” from Colombia “despite numerous interventions … to lift the unjustified measures,” Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said in a statement. The EU hopes to resolve the dispute “as soon as possible,” she said.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently released a report on the World Trade Organization moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions. The moratorium, in effect since 1998, is scheduled to expire this year. The report provides details of the “different issues at stake” in the debate over whether to extend the moratorium or eliminate it, the OECD said.