World Trade Organization members on Jan. 15 agreed that as the basis for talks in the run-up to the 13th Ministerial Conference, they would use the most recent draft text on addressing subsidies promoting overcapacity and overfishing, the WTO announced. Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, chair of the fisheries subsidies talks, said members over the next four weeks will use the draft to finalize a "clean" text for MC13, which will be held Feb. 26-29 in the United Arab Emirates. The WTO said members will hold meetings from Jan. 15 to Feb. 9 to "go through the whole text." This period is being dubbed "Fish Month" at the WTO.

World Trade Organization members will vote on the accession of Timor-Leste to the global trade body during the Feb. 26-29 Ministerial Conference, the WTO announced. Talks pertaining to Timor-Leste's accession wrapped up in just over seven years, which is a record for the accession of a least-developed country, the WTO said.

World Trade Organization members attending the 13th Ministerial Conference Feb. 26-29 will vote on Comoros' accession to the global trade body. Members agreed on the terms of Comoros' membership on Jan. 9, the body announced. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stressed the importance of least-developed nations, like Comoros, joining the WTO.

Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, the chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations at the World Trade Organization, sent a draft text on the second wave of fisheries subsidies talks to get negotiations "over the finish line" at the 13th Ministerial Conference to be held in February 2024, the WTO announced. Gunnarsson said work will resume after the holidays "with a 'fish month' of continuous negotiations" that will last until mid-February, when texts for MC13 must be completed.

Informal negotiations on revising the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement rules "are nearing their conclusion," Marco Molina, the Guatemala deputy permanent representative, told members of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body at its Dec. 18 meeting. Molina said the goal is to have a "fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024," according to the WTO.

India appealed an April World Trade Organization panel report that said its duties on information and communications technology goods destined to the EU violated India's tariff commitments, the WTO announced Dec. 14 (see 2304170018). The EU, Japan and Taiwan each have brought cases to the WTO to dispute the Indian tariffs, and India filed a similar appeal of Japan's case against the tariffs in May (see 2305250056). The WTO can't address the appeals because it doesn't have a functioning appellate body (see 2311200078).

Gambia and the U.K. formally accepted the agreement on fisheries subsidies on Dec. 13, the World Trade Organization announced. Fifty-five members have now accepted the deal, which is half the two-thirds majority needed for ratification. As a coastal nation, "Gambia recognizes the critical role of sustainable fisheries for our national economy and the well-being of future generations," Trade Minister Baboucarr Ousmaila Joof said. U.K. official Andrew Mitchell called the deal a "landmark agreement."

More "intensive work" still remains if World Trade Organization members want to set a final negotiating text on fisheries subsidies before the 13th Ministerial Conference in February, they said during a negotiating session this month.

Chile formally accepted the agreement on fisheries subsidies on Dec. 12, bringing to 53 the number of World Trade Organization members to have accepted the deal, the WTO announced. This number is "nearly half" of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification. Claudia Sanhueza Riveros, Chile's undersecretary of international economic relations, said the deal "is a very important agreement, especially for countries in the Pacific, where our marine ecosystems are generally being overexploited. It also seeks to address the global challenges we face in terms of the sustainability of our environment and our oceans.”

World Trade Organization members on Nov. 30 signed off on a report laying out 127 steps to boost the functioning of the Council for Trade in Goods along with its 14 subsidiary bodies, the WTO announced. Following up on the mandate to increase the committee's functionality issued at the 12th Ministerial Conference, the members touted the reforms as a deliverable for MC13. The reforms are divvied into six categories: "assistance to delegates, planning and organization of meetings, conduct of formal meetings, conduct of informal meetings, digital tools and substantive work." Members also adopted a draft report related to the WTO response to the COVID-19 pandemic and "preparedness for future pandemics."