The World Trade Organization on Oct. 15 published the agenda for the next meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body, set to be held Oct. 26. Agenda items include reviewing the status of implementation of recommendations adopted by the body, with the U.S. providing a status report on the following: its antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; Section 110 (5) of the U.S. Copyright Act; its antidumping and countervailing duties on large residential washers from South Korea; and certain of its methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China. Also, the DSB will discuss the U.S.'s Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000, along with a statement by the European Union related to it; and a U.S. statement on the implementation of the recommendations of the DSB regarding measures affecting trade in large civil aircraft. Also, the body will take up a request by Australia for the establishment of a panel on China's antidumping and countervailing duty measures on Australian wine.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai called on the World Trade Organization to conclude the fisheries subsidies agreement, and said that discussions in Geneva about how to revive the Appellate Body should instead focus on what could incentivize countries to reach an agreement before years and years of litigation.

World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that formal negotiations over issuing an intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines are "stuck," but that compromise stands within reach. Speaking at an event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, she said that balancing the concerns of less developed nations that seek greater vaccine access and developed countries that seek to protect the incentives and rewards of innovation of the vaccines is "practical" and eminently possible. Okonjo-Iweala also hinted that informal talks are ramping up toward finding a solution to the waiver issue, known as the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS, waiver.

Turkey launched a safeguard investigation Oct. 9 on grinding balls and similar articles for mills, notifying the World Trade Organization of the probe, the WTO said Oct. 13. Interested parties can complete a questionnaire on the potential safeguard measures, with responses due within 30 days from the date of publication of the communique.

The World Trade Organization published two information notes Oct. 8, with one relating to COVID-19 vaccine production and tariffs on vaccine inputs, the other on trade-related bottlenecks on critical products to fight COVID-19. The first report, based on the Joint Indicative List of Critical COVID-19 Vaccine Inputs for Consultation, looks into the most favored nation tariffs and imports of these goods by the top 27 vaccine manufacturing countries to identify any chokepoints. The report found that critical product tariffs remain high, especially in certain developing companies, the WTO said.

The World Trade Organization released a new online tool for tracking changes to the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) -- the system used to classify traded goods, the WTO said. The HS Tracker was developed with the World Customs Organization and is meant to aid customs officials and traders in preparing for HS amendments set to take effect Jan. 1, 2022.

The World Trade Organization launched a database that establishes an interactive platform to research information relating to the dispute settlement process under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1947. The database is based on a WTO report on GATT disputes during 1948-95, that was published in 2018. The database provides access to the main documents in GATT disputes, including consultation requests, adjudicators, disputing parties and claims and defenses. The resources section gives access to different GATT dispute settlement procedures, which have evolved over time. A one-page summary has key dates, documents and other information relating to each GATT dispute, the WTO said.

Discussions over the Bali tariff rate quota underfill mechanism were suspended at the World Trade Organization Committee on Agriculture's Sept. 23-24 meeting, the WTO said. The underfill mechanism refers to cases where the fill rate of a TRQ in a given year is below 65% or the fill rate is not notified, as formulated during the 2017-19 review of the implementation of the Bali TRQ decision, WTO said. One key outstanding issue in paragraph four is how to get to closure on an underfill for a developing importing member that does not achieve the required increase in the fill rate in the final stage of the mechanism, the WTO said. Talks over how to resolve this issue were suspended, with some members requesting more time for discussion.

The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body established a panel to address Japan's concerns over China's antidumping duties on stainless steel products, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Sept. 28. Japan requested the panel in August. China's antidumping duties began in July 2019 on stainless steel goods from Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and the European Union. Japan said the duties violate the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (the WTO Anti-dumping Agreement) “due to flaws in the Chinese authorities' determination and its investigation procedures.”

The World Trade Organization circulated the agenda for the Sept. 27 meeting of the dispute settlement body, which includes a briefing on the implementation status of the dispute resolutions for the U.S.'s antidumping duties on hot-rolled steel products from Japan, Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act, the U.S.'s antidumping and countervailing duties on large residential washers from South Korea, and certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China. The DSB will also hear about the U.S.'s Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000, and will receive a statement from the U.S. about the European Union's measures affecting trade in large civil aircraft. China will also issue a statement regarding the panel report in the dispute over the U.S.'s safeguard measures on solar panel imports.