Australia and China officially agreed to resolve World Trade Organization disputes over Chinese duties on Australian wine and Australian duties on Chinese wind towers, China’s Commerce Ministry said Oct. 22. The two sides “conducted friendly consultations under the WTO framework on WTO dispute” and “have reached consensus on properly resolving them,” a ministry spokesperson said, according to an unofficial translation. “We are willing to work with Australia to continue to meet each other halfway through dialogue and consultation, and jointly promote the stable and healthy development of bilateral economic and trade relations.”
Seven World Trade Organization member countries formally accepted the fisheries subsidies agreement on Oct. 23, pushing the number of WTO members to have done so to 51. This number is 46% of the total number needed for the agreement to take effect, the WTO said. In all, Albania, Australia, Botswana, Cuba, Cote d'Ivoire, South Korea and St. Lucia accepted the deal as part of a two-day meeting of senior officials Oct. 23-24 in Geneva. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, noting that Fiji is expected to accept the deal soon, said the announcement "represents a leap in the right direction."
World Trade Organization members participating in the Information Technology Agreement and the ITA Expansion Agreement on Oct. 19 approved Timor-Leste's bid to participate in the agreements, the WTO announced. As a result, the ITA Schedules will be incorporated into Timor-Leste's WTO goods schedule, making up a part of the nation's "final WTO accession package." Per the ITA commitments, after Timor-Leste joints the WTO, the country will eliminate duties on 242 products, amounting to 64% of its ITA-related tariff lines, the WTO said, and the duties on the remaining 114 ITA products will be scrapped on Jan. 1, 2027. As for the ITA Expansion Agreement, Timor-Leste will drop import duties on 240 of 488 tariff lines upon accession, with another 333 tariff lines reduced to zero after three years.
The World Trade Organization's Committee on Market Access during its Oct. 16-17 meeting discussed ways to revise the committee's functioning and agreed to carry out a thematic session on supply chain resilience in November, the WTO said.
The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's Oct. 26 meeting includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of DSB recommendations 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. Status reports also are expected from Indonesia on measures related to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products, and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products.
Macao, China, formally submitted its instrument of acceptance on the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, making it the 44th World Trade Organization member to accept the deal, the World Trade Organization announced on Oct. 19. With Macao's announcement, the WTO is now 40% of its way to the two-thirds majority needed for the deal to come into effect. “Macao, China's support for curbing harmful subsidies in the fisheries sector underscores its dedication to preserving our oceans and marine life, crucial for global food security and environmental stability," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said.
World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala appointed El Salvador's Johanna Hill to be a deputy director-general, replacing Costa Rica's Anabel Gonzalez, who held the role for two years. Hill is managing partner and founder of CA Trade Consulting Group's San Salvador Office, and was previously El Salvador's vice minister of economy.
World Trade Organization members discussed two proposals on trade and technology transfer during the Oct. 13 meeting of the Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology, the WTO said.
World Trade Organization members reached consensus on incorporating the investment facilitation for development (IFD) agreement into the WTO's legal architecture via a "plurilateral avenue," the WTO announced. Members said that during the Oct. 11-13 negotiations, they agreed to complete the agreement's final provisions under that route and also announced that Bolivia, Niger and Tonga had joined the initiative since the plenary meeting in September.
World Trade Organization members wrapped up the sixth negotiation session on the second fisheries deal, dubbed the sixth "Fish Week," held Oct. 9-13 (see 2310100019), the WTO said. During the meeting, members held the first "line-by-line reading of the draft text," which covers tools to lower fisheries subsidies leading to overcapacity and overfishing. Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, chair of the negotiations, urged members to encourage their senior officials to enter "full negotiating mode" during the Oct. 23-24 high-level meeting, which is scheduled to cover the "various streams of ongoing work at the WTO."