South Africa on April 24 requested dispute consultations with the EU at the World Trade Organization concerning the bloc's regime on imports of South African citrus fruit, the WTO announced.

Turkey's Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy, chair of the World Trade Organization's agriculture negotiations, said "fresh thinking" is needed to end the stagnation in current agriculture talks, the WTO said. Addressing the participating members of the ag negotiating body during the first meeting since the 13th Ministerial Conference, Acarsoy urged members not to ditch "past efforts" despite the disappointment felt after a deal was not struck at MC13.

A World Trade Organization dispute panel issued its report on Australia's dispute against Chinese antidumping and countervailing duties on Australian wine after the parties reached a mutually agreed solution to the case. Australia argued that China's AD/CVD violated numerous elements of both the Anti-Dumping Agreement and the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement. The parties told the dispute settlement body that they reached a settlement on March 29.

World Trade Organization members at the Committee on Trade Facilitation's April 16-17 meeting discussed using digital trade tools to "optimize the movement of goods across borders in line with the committee's decision to focus on this topic in 2024," the WTO announced.

The World Trade Organization Committee on Agriculture on April 17 adopted recommendations on how to aid least developed countries and net food-importing developing countries in responding to acute food insecurity, the WTO announced. The recommendations focus on "access to international food markets, financing of food imports, agricultural production resilience of LDCs and NFIDCs, and horizontal, cross-cutting issues." They were adopted to fulfill the committee's mandate stemming from the 12th Ministerial Conference to "undertake a dedicated work programme focusing on the food security needs of LDCs and NFIDCs and to examine how the 1994 Marrakesh Decision targeting these countries could be made more effective and operational."

The World Trade Organization on April 11 released a new "Global Services Trade Data Hub," allowing access to WTO data on services trade, the WTO announced. The hub includes four datasets, "covering digitally delivered services, trade in services by mode of supply, trade in commercial services, and the WTO-OECD Balanced Trade in Services dataset."

World Trade Organization members, during an April 11 Committee on Trade and Development meeting, reviewed developments in regional trade agreements and ways to increase developing nations' role in the global trading system, the WTO announced. The committee noted that developing nations face challenges to participating in international trade, including "dependence on commodity exports and higher trade costs." The members addressed policy spaces for developing nations to boost industrial development, including under the WTO's framework of the Agreements on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, Trade-Related Investment Measures and Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

The World Trade Organization's Committee on Regional Trade Agreements met April 8 to consider six regional trade agreements and discuss how to enhance the committee's functionality, the WTO announced. The committee chair, New Zealand's Clare Kelly, said that members agreed to include an "executive summary in the factual presentations, to be drafted and circulated under the responsibility of the Secretariat."

Turkey opened a safeguard investigation on ethyl acetate, the nation told the World Trade Organization's Committee on Safeguards, the WTO announced. Turkey opened the investigation April 6 and said interested parties must file a questionnaire response within 30 days from the start of the investigation.

Australia and China recently notified the World Trade Organization that they are ending their dispute involving Chinese antidumping and countervailing duties on wine from Australia (see 2310230060. The WTO circulated the notification to WTO members April 3, the trade body announced.