A World Trade Organization dispute panel found the U.S. violated WTO rules during investigations leading up to the imposition of countervailing duties on ripe olives from Spain. The panel found that the U.S. erred when finding that subsidies given to Spanish raw olive growers under the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy were specific to the olive growers, a finding that was inconsistent with measures in the WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. The Court of International Trade independently came to the same conclusion. In June, the court said that the countervailing duties could not stand since they were not specific to Spanish olive growers (see 2106170075). The panel also said the Commerce Department's regulation permitting it to deem the full amount of subsidies taken in by raw olive growers to have passed through to the downstream producers lacks any real factual basis and is inconsistent with WTO rules. The panel did not find, however, that the antidumping duties on the same goods violated the trade body's rules. "The Commission's efforts to vigorously defend the interests and rights of EU producers, in this case growers of Spanish ripe olives, are now paying off," Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU's commissioner for trade, said. "The WTO has upheld our claims about anti-subsidy duties being unjustified and in violation of WTO rules. These duties severely hit Spanish olive producers, who saw their exports to the US fall dramatically as a result. We now expect the US to take the appropriate steps to implement the WTO ruling, so that exports of ripe olives from Spain to the US can resume under normal conditions.”

While the World Trade Organization's upcoming 12th Ministerial Conference presents an opportunity to start meaningful discussion over revising the globe's leading multilateral trading body, the event will lack an immediate solution to pressing issues such as appellate body reform or an end to the all-purpose member veto, a former WTO deputy director-general said. Speaking at a Nov. 18 event on MC12 hosted by the Washington International Trade Association, Alan Wolff, now a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, also explored the leadership dynamics that will be in play at the Nov. 30-Dec. 3 conference.

Costa Rica Ambassador Gloria Abraham Peralta, who chairs the World Trade Organization's agriculture negotiations, plans to release "as soon as possible" a revised draft negotiation text for an agriculture package ahead of the Nov. 30-Dec. 3 12th Ministerial Conference, the WTO said. Peralta also said she aims to submit her report to the Trade Negotiations Committee Nov. 19 to capitalize on this "critical time" ahead of MC12. The first draft negotiation text for an MC12 agriculture package was introduced July 29. The main negotiation topics were "domestic support, market access, export restrictions, export competition, cotton, public stockholding for food security purposes (PSH) and a special safeguard mechanism (SSM) as well as cross-cutting transparency issues," the WTO said.

The European Union will request a World Trade Organization panel in its ongoing dispute settlement case against Russia's state-owned enterprise procurement practices, the European Commission announced Nov. 17. The EU is challenging Russia's favoring domestic goods and services by state-related entities "to the detriment of EU companies." The EU's panel request will be considered at the next WTO Dispute Settlement Body meeting on Nov. 29.

The World Trade Organization launched a new Quantitative Restrictions Database on Nov. 8 -- a platform that allows users to retrieve information on trade restrictions and prohibitions notified by WTO members, the WTO said. The database gives information on COVID-19-related export restrictions, that includes data on the restrictions such as "intended duration" and their "WTO justification." The update streamlines the process for accessing information in the QR notifications and also gives the option to generate charts directly through the platform, the notice said. To date, 84 WTO members have submitted 220 QR notifications to the multilateral trade body, which cover 1,724 notified measures currently in force, the WTO said.

The World Trade Organization chair of fisheries subsidies negotiations introduced new text Nov. 8 to be used for "clause-by-clause" discussions to hammer out the remaining differences on a fisheries agreement ahead of the 12th Ministerial Conference, the WTO said. The conference will run Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the text "represents a good balance that addresses development issues and maintains ambition." The text was released at a meeting of the Negotiating Group on Rules at the Head of Delegation level.

The U.S. and China joined the World Trade Organization initiative on trade and environmental sustainability, dubbed the Trade and Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions, as co-sponsors, the WTO said. At the Nov. 4 WTO meeting, members welcomed the additions of the globe's two largest economies and also expressed their support for a draft ministerial statement that would set out goals for advancement in key areas such as trade and climate change.

World Trade Organization members agreed to a draft decision ahead of the 12th Ministerial Conference relating to non-violation and situation complaints in the area of intellectual property, the WTO said. The agreement was reached at the Nov. 5 meeting of the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. The decision effectively extends the moratorium on bringing IP cases to the dispute settlement system on non-violation and situation complaints and allows for continued talks on these issues at the TRIPS Council.

Intermediate goods exports -- that is, shipments of inputs used to make a final product -- rose by 47% year over year in the second quarter of 2021, the World Trade Organization said, citing a new WTO report intended to monitor global supply chain health. After Q1 grew by 20%, the new 47% mark signifies sustained growth and continues the trend of 2021 surpassing 2019 pre-COVID-19-pandemic levels, the report said. Leading the IG export growth charge for the second quarter was Africa, which saw an 88% expansion of its IG exports due to "strong jumps in exports of precious metals and stones such as rhodium, diamonds, copper/copper cathodes and iron ore concentrates," the WTO said. China maintained its high growth of international inputs in Q2, coming in at just over 40%, while Australia's IG exports soared 74% in the quarter, due to high volumes for shipments of iron ore concentrates, wheat and meslin.

World Trade Organization members heard from the Committee on Regional Trade Agreement on Nov. 1 when the chair of the committee provided an update on the committee's transparency mechanism for regional trade agreements, the WTO said. Members also looked over the European Union-Vietnam, U.S.-Canada-Mexico and Australia-Indonesia regional trade agreements as part of the update.