Trade policy uncertainty and the prospect of more tariffs could disrupt global goods trade, according to a World Trade Organization report released this week. Global goods trade was steady in the fourth quarter of last year and appear to continue growing in the first months of 2025, but that could be undone by a looming global trade war.
Canada has formally initiated dispute settlement proceedings at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the United States concerning additional import duties imposed on Canadian steel and aluminum products. The request for WTO consultations was circulated to members on March 13, following the termination of Canada’s exemption from these tariffs.
Geneva’s international organisations and NGOs have expressed alarm over a recent questionnaire issued by the U.S. State Department, revealing a fundamental misunderstanding of the multilateral system, Le Temps reports. The document, which was distributed to recipients of U.S. funding, includes a series of politically charged questions, raising concerns about the future of American engagement in global governance.
WTO Tariff & Trade Data, an online platform providing enhanced access to official tariff and trade figures for over 150 economies, was launched on 4 March. The database — currently in its beta version for preliminary release —includes bilateral trade datasets, time series views, and reports on export and import patterns by product and trade partner.
A recent blog post, How the US Reciprocal Tariff Plan Could Save the WTO, by trade experts Hervé Jouanjean, Jennifer Hillman, and Joost Pauwelyn, presents a counterintuitive argument: that the U.S. proposal for reciprocal tariffs—widely criticized as a destabilizing force—could, if managed strategically, serve as the catalyst for reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO). "If managed properly," the authors write, "this could, in effect, turn into the biggest tariff negotiation round since the creation of the WTO in 1994, with the potential to create a fairer and more enduring result."
The World Trade Organization completed its review of Ukraine’s trade policy and practices last week, releasing a report highlighting the countries resilience in the face Russia’s full-scale invasion which began three years ago. The accompanying resolution condemning the Kremlin’s aggression was adopted by 54 WTO members, although the U.S. delegation abstained, reflecting Washington’s changed allegiances in the conflict.
China lashed out at the United States at the World Trade Organization’s General Council meeting, charging that Washington’s “tariffs on its trading partners, including China, unilaterally and arbitrarily, blatantly [are] violating WTO rules.” At the meeting, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is understood to have expressed her grave worries about the ongoing developments triggered by one member, saying it is not in the interest of anyone to destabilize the multilateral trading system, according to the people present at the meeting.
World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has proposed establishing a panel of “eminent persons” to conduct an in-depth analysis of WTO reform—an idea swiftly rejected by the United States. Washington rejected the notion of outsourcing WTO reform, asserting that such an approach would leave members in a passive, reactive role while allowing outsiders to dictate the organization’s agenda. In another discussion at the General Council meeting, the United States urged Okonjo-Iweala to avoid politicizing the accession process for new WTO members. This issue has gained prominence as negotiations are underway for a “development package” at the WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14), scheduled to take place in Yaoundé, Cameroon, next year.
China has requested WTO dispute consultations with the United States in regard to new tariff measures applied by the United States on goods originating in China. The request was circulated to WTO members on 5 February. China claims that the 10 per cent additional ad valorem duties applied on all goods originating in China, as well as measures with respect to the availability of drawback and duty-free de minimis treatment, which apply to all products of Chinese origin, are inconsistent with US most-favoured-nation obligations under Article I:1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 and US tariff obligations under Article II:1(a) of GATT 1994.
At a meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agriculture negotiations, outgoing Chair Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Türkiye delivered his final report, urging members to overcome longstanding divisions and achieve substantive progress ahead of the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Yaoundé in 2026. Reflecting on efforts over the past two years, Ambassador Acarsoy expressed regret that MC13 in 2024 had failed to deliver an outcome on agriculture, despite nearing consensus. “The position we find ourselves in is very similar to where we stood before MC13. I urge you to collectively consider what steps can be taken to break free from this recurring ‘Groundhog Day’ scenario and drive meaningful progress forward,” he stated.
The change in Administration has not translated into a change in position when it comes to the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body.. The United States, for the 83rd time, rejected a proposal to start the selection process for filling vacancies on the long moribund AB at yesterday’s meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body. President Trump so far has been largely silent on his views about the WTO. The long-standing US argument is that the AB routinely overstepped its jurisdiction, often issuing reports that had the effect of creating new WTO rules, rather than simply adjudicating disputes.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala invited world leaders, government officials, and businesspeople to “just chill” and “take a deep breath” amid rising trade policy uncertainties during her participation in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland last week. “We've done simulations that show that fragmenting into two geopolitical trading blocs and adding trade policy uncertainty may lead to a real loss in global GDP in the longer term of 6.4%. This is like losing the economy of Japan and Korea combined.”
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) today released its 2024 Report on the Implementation and Enforcement of Russia’s World Trade Organization (WTO) Commitments. "In short, 2024 saw a continuation in Russia’s disregard for its WTO commitments. Russia continues to erect walls, or tariffs and non-tariff measures, around its economy to isolate itself foregoing the benefits of liberal trade," the report states.
The chair of the long-stalled agriculture negotiations, Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Türkiye provided a written statement to the TNC. He noted that recent discussions have focused on process, in particular whether a facilitator-led process should accompany engagement by members among themselves on issues of interest. Despite efforts to find a compromise, members were not in a position to agree on a way forward.
There has been a sharp rise in trade-restrictive measures in the year ending mid October, the World Trade Organization reported. The latest Trade Monitoring Report indicates coverage of trade-restrictive measures between mid-October 2023 and mid-October 2024 increased. The report, released Wednesday for a meeting of the Trade Policy Review Body, also shows WTO members introduced a substantial number of trade-facilitating measures. But there is increasing evidence of inward-looking trade policies which could generate further uncertainty for the world economy, according to the report.
The United States Wednesday laid out its arguments for excluding national security measures from World Trade Organization litigation, suggesting the better response is a rebalancing of trade concessions when there is a dispute. In a paper, Washington said that “litigating matters of essential security (exception provisions at the WTO) undermines the foundations of the WTO by dragging the Organization into debating inherently political matters.”
World Trade Organization negotiations on ending subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing have hit a stalemate, meaning members will miss an end-of-year goal of reaching agreement on the parameters of a deal. The chair of the fisheries negotiation, Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland, told the Trade Negotiations Committee meeting that “save for any last-minute solution, it seems to me that, as one Member has put it, the negotiations have reached a stalemate even though nearly all Members can support the current text as a basis for conclusion.” The two members objecting are widely understood to be Indonesia and India.
Many developing countries are supporting a proposal from Guyana to prioritize the unresolved mandated issues in the World Trade Organization agriculture negotiations, such as the permanent solution for public stockholding programs for developing countries, the special safeguard mechanism and cotton. The proposal calls for accelerated treatment of the mandated issues through text-based negotiations at the Doha negotiating body.
The WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) convened on 25 November 2024 under the chairmanship of Ambassador Saqer Abdullah Almoqbel (Saudi Arabia). Key issues discussed included retaliatory measures, compliance with prior rulings, and ongoing reforms in the WTO’s dispute resolution mechanism. For the 13th time, the US raised its national security justifications for origin marking requirements on imports from Hong Kong-China, reiterating its concerns about the situation in Hong Kong under China’s National Security Law. Hong Kong-China and China criticized the US for politicizing WTO proceedings, calling the allegations unfounded and inappropriate.
WTO members agreed to give incumbent Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala a second term as Director-General of the WTO. Her second four-year term, which was approved at a special General Council meeting, will begin on 1 September 2025. DG Okonjo-Iweala took office as Director-General in March 2021 and is the first African and the first woman to serve as head of the organization.
