G-20 economies have scaled down their COVID-19-related trade restrictions and showed restraint in putting in place new ones, the World Trade Organization said in a Trade Monitoring Report on G-20 trade measures. The value of trade covered by pandemic-related restrictions, however, exceeds the value under trade-facilitating measures, WTO said. The report shows that from mid-May to mid-October, G-20 economies continued to roll back restrictions adopted at the start of the pandemic, but that trade restrictions coverage is still nearly double that of trade-facilitating measures. Fifty-four percent of 144 COVID-19 restrictive measures had been eased by mid-October, but 18 trade restrictions still remain in place, 17 of them export restrictions, the WTO said.

The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body agreed at its Oct. 26 meeting to set up a dispute panel to look into China's antidumping and countervailing duties on Australian wine, the WTO said. China blocked Australia's panel request at the Sept. 27 DSB meeting. China voiced its regret that Australia went back for a second panel request while also saying that it will vigorously defend its legitimate measures in the panel proceedings, the WTO said. China remains confident that its measures are consistent with WTO rules. Canada, Japan, Brazil, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Turkey, Taiwan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, India, Singapore, Russia, the European Union and Vietnam reserved their third-party rights to participate in the proceedings, the WTO said.

The trade ministers for nearly 30 least-developed countries (LDCs) released a declaration laying out their trade priorities in advance of the 12th Ministerial Conference being held Nov. 30 - Dec. 3, the World Trade Organization said. The priorities include equal access to and faster distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and effective implementation of integration of LDCs into the global trading system. This latter point includes preferential rules of origin decisions, an LDC services waiver and duty-free market access for LDC products, the WTO said. The LDCs also called for a working group on WTO reforms to be launched at MC12. “MC12 should respond adequately to mitigate the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ali Djadda Kampard, Chad’s minister for trade and industry and coordinator of the WTO LDC Group.

Ukraine launched a safeguard investigation on tricone drilling bits Oct. 13, it notified the World Trade Organization, the WTO said Oct. 22. The investigation will cover drilling bits with working parts other than natural or artificial diamond, "regardless of the country of origin and export." Ukraine cited substantial evidence from a national producer that documented increased imports of the subject merchandise could cause injury to the domestic producer. Ukraine's Ministry of Economy will conduct a registration of interested parties within 30 days from the publication of its Oct. 11 notice of the decision to conduct the inquiry.

The World Trade Organization noted positive developments on the COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property waiver during small group and bilateral meetings at the Oct. 13-14 meeting of the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. TRIPS Council Chair Dagfinn Sorli of Norway said that WTO member state consultations will continue with the goal of achieving a consensus before the 12th Ministerial Conference begins Nov. 30 (see 2110140047). The recent small group and bilateral meetings focused on consolidating the two IP waiver proposals -- one from South Africa and India, the other from the European Union. Discussions seek to balance concerns over vaccine access from less developed nations and innovation incentive concerns from developed nations.

Alan Wolff, a former deputy director-general at the World Trade Organization, called on China to join the WTO Pharmaceutical Agreement, play a constructive role in the fisheries negotiations, and lead in restarting the Environmental Goods Agreement.

The World Trade Organization on Oct. 15 published the agenda for the next meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body, set to be held Oct. 26. Agenda items include reviewing the status of implementation of recommendations adopted by the body, with the U.S. providing a status report on the following: its antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; Section 110 (5) of the U.S. Copyright Act; its antidumping and countervailing duties on large residential washers from South Korea; and certain of its methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China. Also, the DSB will discuss the U.S.'s Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000, along with a statement by the European Union related to it; and a U.S. statement on the implementation of the recommendations of the DSB regarding measures affecting trade in large civil aircraft. Also, the body will take up a request by Australia for the establishment of a panel on China's antidumping and countervailing duty measures on Australian wine.

Turkey launched a safeguard investigation Oct. 9 on grinding balls and similar articles for mills, notifying the World Trade Organization of the probe, the WTO said Oct. 13. Interested parties can complete a questionnaire on the potential safeguard measures, with responses due within 30 days from the date of publication of the communique.

The World Trade Organization released a new online tool for tracking changes to the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) -- the system used to classify traded goods, the WTO said. The HS Tracker was developed with the World Customs Organization and is meant to aid customs officials and traders in preparing for HS amendments set to take effect Jan. 1, 2022.

A summary of negotiations at the World Trade Organization on how to curb overfishing said that some countries are supporting the U.S. proposal to require countries to submit information on any vessels that are using forced labor. However, other countries "reiterated that the WTO is not the appropriate forum for labor issues," according to the summary, which was provided by a Geneva trade official.