South Africa has launched a safeguard investigation on corrosion-resistant steel coil, the South African government told the World Trade Organization's Committee on Safeguards. The investigation started Jan. 17 and covers "certain flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel" and "certain flat-rolled products of other alloy steel." South Africa said interested parties should make themselves known within 20 days of the start of the investigation.
Panama appealed a World Trade Organization dispute ruling on its restrictions covering strawberries, pineapples, bananas, plantains and dairy and meat products from Costa Rica "into the void," effectively ending the dispute due to the lack of a functioning Appellate Body. Panama told the Dispute Settlement Body of its decision to appeal the ruling during its Jan. 24 meeting. Last month, a dispute panel said Panama's phytosanitary restrictions violated the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and were "more trade-restrictive than required to achieve Panama's" appropriate level of protection, given that alternatives proposed by Costa Rica were "reasonably available," achieved the appropriate protection level and were less trade-restrictive (see 2412050051).
The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's Jan. 27 meeting includes a request from China to establish a panel in its dispute against Turkey's measures on electric vehicles and other types of vehicles from China.
The EU requested consultations with China at the World Trade Organization, alleging that China has empowered its courts to set worldwide royalty rates for EU standard essential patents, without the consent of the patent owner. The EU alleged that the measures violate Article 64.1 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and Article XXII:1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994.
The U.S. and Vietnam agreed to resolve a long-running dispute on U.S. antidumping duty proceedings on fish fillets from Vietnam. The dispute was originally brought in 2018 to challenge the proceedings as being in violation of the WTO antidumping agreement. In particular, Vietnam challenged the U.S. government's imposition of AD cash deposit requirements in the fifth, sixth and seventh reviews of the AD order, covering entries in 2007-2010. Vietnam claimed that the U.S, should have revoked the order following the seventh review and that the U.S. unlawfully used a country-wide AD rate based on adverse facts available against respondents that were not individually investigated.
Israel formally accepted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies Jan. 22, bringing the number of countries that have accepted the deal to 89. The WTO needs 22 more to get two-thirds of the membership, the threshold needed for the agreement to take effect.
The heads of the World Trade Organization and the World Customs Organization penned a Memorandum of Understanding on Jan. 21 to boost cooperation on "customs-related matters," the WTO announced. The organizations agreed to identify opportunities to collaborate in "external fora" and on the "delivery of technical assistance and capacity building in areas of common interest, including the implementation of grants provided through the Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility." The two organizations also agreed to share information in "areas of common interests," including on the development of the Harmonized System tracker and tariff classification. The groups pledged to harmonize work on the transposition of the HS, including through sharing information on projects and activities to combat illegal trade.
The World Trade Organization's Committee on Market Access held its final meeting of a series of thematic sessions on supply chain resilience on Jan. 17, the WTO said. The session gave examples of multilateral and regional initiatives on supply chain resilience and how the WTO can support members via trade policy.
The EU has requested consultations at the World Trade Organization as the first step in contesting Chinese practices pertaining to intellectual property rights, the European Commission announced on Jan. 19. The commission alleged that China has "empowered its courts to set binding worldwide royalty rates for EU standard essential patents, without the consent of the patent owner."
A World Trade Organization dispute panel on Jan. 10 delivered a mixed ruling in Indonesia's dispute against various measures imposed by the EU and its member states on palm oil and oil palm crop-based biofuels from Indonesia. The European Commission touted the ruling as a win, declaring in a press release that the panel "confirmed the overall WTO compatibility" of its "Renewable Energy Directive" legal framework.