U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said countries need to find "pragmatic solutions to increase vaccine production," during a Jan. 21 video call with 30 other trade ministers from the European Union, China, India, South Africa, Nigeria, Jamaica, the United Kingdom and other countries. The World Trade Organization has been struggling to agree on how trade laws could be eased to increase distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to developing countries. Tai's readout of the call also said there's an opportunity to reach a conclusion to the fisheries subsidies negotiations, but she wants there to be "an ambitious agreement that improves the status quo." She also said the WTO needs to tackle agriculture issues.

The European Union requested consultations at the World Trade Organization with Russia over its export restrictions on wood products, the European Commission said in a Jan. 20 news release. The protectionist measures include upping export duties on certain wood products and limiting wood exports to only one border crossing point. If consultations fall through, the EU can request a dispute settlement panel. The EU is alleging that these two steps run contrary to Russia's WTO commitments. For instance, Russia pledged to keep a maximum duty rate for certain quantities of exports at 13% or 15%, and then withdrew the tariff rate quotas and applied export duties of 80%, the commission said. The commission further said that by restricting the border crossing points for wood exports to one -- Luttya in Finland -- Russia violated a WTO rule that forbids action that inhibits the use of existing border crossing points that are technically capable of handling such exports.

China asked the World Trade Organization to set up a dispute panel to look at Australia’s antidumping measures on Chinese wind towers, stainless steel sinks and certain railway wheels, as well as Australian countervailing duties on Chinese stainless steel sinks, the WTO said Jan. 14. Australia’s trade minister said Jan. 15 that he’s “confident our measures are consistent” with WTO obligations and plans to “robustly defend them.”

India will appeal a World Trade Organization panel's reports that support cases brought by sugarcane producers, to the Dispute Settlement Body, the WTO said. Brazil, Australia and Guatemala brought the initial cases, which resulted in a panel report finding that India was not acting in line with its agricultural commitments. In the Dec. 14 panel reports, the WTO said that for five consecutive sugar seasons, India gave nonexempt product-specific domestic support to producers in excess of the permitted 10% level of the total value of sugarcane production via three assistance programs (see 2112140081). India's appeal will fall on deaf ears, however, since the U.S. has routinely blocked efforts to fill the vacancies on the Appellate Body, precluding the possibility of an appeal at the Appellate Body.

Peru initiated a safeguard investigation on clothing Dec. 24, it told the World Trade Organization, as reported Jan. 3. Individuals or entities interested in expressing opinions on any potential safeguards can submit comments to Peru's Commission on Dumping Subsidies and Elimination of Non-Tariff Trade Barriers. A public hearing on the safeguard measures has yet to be announced.

The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body agreed to set up two new dispute panels to examine Russian measures disrupting EU access to procurement by state-related entities and the Dominican Republic's antidumping duties on corrugated steel bars from Costa Rica, the WTO said. The panels were agreed to at the Dec. 20 meeting of the DSB. The EU requested the panel over Russia's procurement measures, while Costa Rica requested the panel over the Dominican Republic's antidumping duties. The EU's panel request was the second attempt after Russia blocked its first request in November. While stating its regrets that the EU decided to further pursue the establishment of a panel, Russia said that it is confident its measures fully comply with the WTO's regulations. The same is true of Costa Rica's panel request, as its first bid was thwarted by the Dominican Republic.

World merchandise trade dipped 0.8% in the third quarter of 2021 following four straight quarters of expansion, the World Trade Organization said, pointing to supply chain disruptions, with imports in North America and Europe weaker than forecast; production input shortages, in particular semiconductor shortages; and rising COVID-19 cases as the omicron variant recently emerged, as the causes. Trade volume was up 11.9% year-to-date through September, although this was slightly lower than the WTO's most recent trade forecast, the trade organization said. With export and import prices rising sharply, the value of world merchandise climbed 24% year-on-year in the third quarter. This boost was fueled by primary commodities including fuels, which saw prices double from the third quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of 2021, the WTO said.

The U.S. will not appeal a recent World Trade Organization dispute settlement body ruling which found that its countervailing duties on ripe olives from Spain violated WTO rules, the U.S. said at the Dec. 20 meeting of the DSB. A panel at the DSB found that the U.S. erred when finding that subsidies given to Spanish raw olive growers under the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy were specific to the olive growers, a finding that was inconsistent with measures in the WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (see 2111190028). The U.S., in its comments to the body, said that it will permit the report to be adopted despite expressing being "disappointed" with a few of the panel's findings.

The World Trade Organization found that India is not acting in line with its agricultural commitments, three Dec. 14 panel reports concluded. The panels, which surveyed claims from Brazil, Australia and Guatemala into India's domestic support to sugarcane producers, found that for five consecutive sugar seasons, India gave non-exempt product-specific domestic support to these producers in excess of the permitted 10% level of the total value of sugarcane production. In all three claims, the WTO panel found that India was providing subsidies that run contrary to its WTO obligations via the Production Assistance, the Buffer Stock, and the Marketing and Transportation schemes, and that these schemes are contingent on export performance. With respect to Australia's claims, the panel also found that India's Duty Free Import Authorisation schemes are subsidies contingent on export performance and thus in violation of WTO commitments. The panel, in each case, recommended that India "withdraw its prohibited subsidies under the Production Assistance, the Buffer Stock, the Marketing and Transportation, and the DFIA Schemes within 120 days from the adoption of our Report."

The World Trade Organization published the agenda for the next meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body, set for Dec. 20. The agenda includes status reports by the U.S. on the implementation of recommendations adopted by the DSB 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.