China's Political Bureau of the Central Committee on Sept. 27 held its eighth study session on World Trade Organization rules and revision efforts, with President Xi Jinping noting the need for reform and China's participation in these efforts. The nation's Ministry of Commerce said Xi emphasized the WTO's need to safeguard the multilateral trading system with the trade body as the core and to restore the normal operation of the dispute settlement mechanism, according to an unofficial translation.

The World Trade Organization's Committee on Agriculture Working Group on Sept. 21 reviewed the food security coordinatory's report in a bid to advance talks on the food crises and gather consensus on recommendations to be issued by November, the WTO said.

China and the EU held the "10th EU-China High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue" on Sept. 25, discussing the effect of Russia's war in Ukraine on global economics, food and energy security. Also discussed were "EU concerns on access to the Chinese market," prospects for rebalancing the EU-China trade relationship "on the basis of transparency," and predictability and reciprocity, the European Commission said.

The draft text for curbing subsidies leading to overcapacity and overfishing released earlier in September received "broad support" from World Trade Organization members as the starting point for text-based negotiations, Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, chair of the fisheries subsidies talks, reported, the WTO said. Noting the text's warm reception at the fifth "Fish Week" talks, held on Sept. 18-22, Gunnarsson said the next Fish Week will be dedicated to a "collective reading of the text" so line-by-line modifications can be proposed. The next Fish Week is set for Oct. 9-13.

Australia will continue its case at the World Trade Organization against China's tariff treatment of wine imports and reject Beijing's proposal to curtail the issue to China's case against Australia's treatment of steel products. Australian Agriculture Minister Murray Watt told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the government sees the cases as "entirely separate matters."

World Trade Organization members mulled over a draft statement on plastics pollution to be circulated at the 13th Ministerial Conference, during a Sept. 21 meeting of the Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade, the WTO said. Australia introduced the draft statement, saying that it expands on the first "draft zero" statement and outlines actions meant to "reflect the discussions held over the past two years."

Trade policy is key to allowing the steel industry to embrace decarbonization efforts, World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said during a WTO Public Forum event. During her opening remarks, the DG said the trade environment should "enable investments in breakthrough technologies, ensure availability of critical inputs, and increase the demand and cost competitiveness of green steel."

Ukraine filed dispute cases at the World Trade Organization against Hungary, Poland and Slovakia concerning their bans on Ukraine's agricultural exports, the country's Ministry of Economy announced, according to an unofficial translation. The ministry said the three nations' "unilateral ban" violates the countries' international obligations.

Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, who chairs the World Trade Organization's fisheries subsidies talks, introduced a draft text on tackling subsidies leading to overcapacity and overfishing during the Sept. 18 start of the fifth "Fish Week" negotiation session. The text is meant to serve as a "common starting point" while members look to further discussions and to "complete substantive work" on the second round of fisheries subsidies negotiations by December, Gunnarsson said.

China will appeal a World Trade Organization panel ruling rejecting its claim that the retaliatory tariffs placed on the U.S. in response to Section 232 duties were justified, the country's Ministry of Commerce said Sept. 19, according to an unofficial translation. Beijing will appeal "into the void" seeing as the Appellate Body currently doesn't function, barring future enforcement action against China in the dispute.