The WTO announced that on 17 October 2018, parties to the WTO plurilateral Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) unanimously approved a decision to welcome Australia as the 48th WTO member to be covered by the Agreement. Australia will officially become a GPA party 30 days after submitting its Instrument of Accession to the WTO’s Director-General.
On 21 September 2018, the WTO announced that The Bahamas had committed to reactivating and accelerating its WTO accession process after six years of impasse. The third meeting of the Working Party on the Accession of The Bahamas, was held on 21 September. The Bahamas intends to secure WTO membership by the end of 2019. The WTO said that The Bahamas is the last nation in the Americas still outside the WTO.
On August 24, 2018, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice of public hearing and request for comments [Docket Number USTR-2018-0030] to assist the Office of the USTR in the preparation of its annual report to the Congress on China’s compliance with the commitments made in connection with its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has released The Year in Trade 2017 – Operation of the Trade Agreements Program (Pub. No. 4817). The 314 page report is the 69th in a series of annual reports submitted to the US Congress under section 163(c) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2213(c)) and its predecessor legislation. Section 163(c) states that “the International Trade Commission shall submit to the Congress at least once a year, a factual report on the operation of the trade agreements program.”
On 15 August 2018, the WTO announced that at the request of the parties in the dispute “US — Anti-Dumping Measures Applying Differential Pricing Methodology to Softwood Lumber from Canada” (DS534), the panel has decided to open its first substantive meeting to public observation on 12 and 13 September 2018. The live screening will take place at the WTO’s headquarters in Geneva. See the announcement for schedules, rules, and information on how to apply.
On 12 July, the WTO announced that Switzerland has requested WTO dispute consultations with the United States regarding US duties on certain imported steel and aluminium products. The request was circulated to WTO members on 12 July. Switzerland claims the US duties of 25% and 10% on imports of steel and aluminium products respectively are inconsistent with provisions of the WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 and the Agreement on Safeguards. Further…
The WTO announced that Members expressed their concerns over possible measures by the United States regarding extra duties on the import of automobiles, including cars, SUVs, vans, light trucks and automotive parts, at the Council for Trade in Goods (CTG) held on 3 and 4 of July. Over 40 members — including the 28 European Union members — took the floor to warn of the “serious disruption” to world markets and the multilateral trading system that may arise as a result of these potential measures, particularly in light of the large proportion of global trade accounted for by these products. The announcement said:
The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published the following documents related to WTO disputes in the Federal Register. Although USTR will accept any comments received during the course of the dispute settlement proceedings, you should submit your comment on or before the “Comments Due” date to be assured of timely consideration by USTR. F.R. Date Matter Comments Due 06-25-18 Canada – Measures Governing Sale of Wine in Grocery Stores (Second Complaint) [Docket No.…
In a 6 June 2018, press release, the European Commission reported that the College of Commissioners endorsed the decision to impose additional duties on the full list of US products notified to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as part of the EU’s response to the US tariffs on steel and aluminium products.
On 17 May 2018, the European Journal published Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/724 of 16 May 2018 on certain commercial policy measures concerning certain products originating in the United States of America (the Regulation). The Regulation states that although the measures (in the form of an additional 25% duty on certain steel products and 10% duty on certain aluminium products) adopted by the United States on 8 March 2018 were characterised as security measures, they are in essence safeguard measures that “disturb the balance of concessions and obligations resulting from the WTO Agreement and restrict imports for the purpose of protecting domestic industry against foreign competition, for the sake of that industry’s commercial prosperity.”