The TRIPS Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO) held an "informal thematic session" Thursday to discuss the implications of intellectual property (IP) in the development, distribution, and access to COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics.
In a speech at Washington's CSIS, United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai outlined the Biden-Harris Administration's vision for a reformed World Trade Organization (WTO). The Ambassador emphasized the need for the WTO to adapt to contemporary challenges like climate change and non-market economic policies. She also reiterated that the rules governing the WTO should not be static but must be updated through ongoing negotiations among member states.
The African Group has proposed several initiatives that call for “policy space for industrial development” based on “re-balancing” the existing World Trade Organization rules in order to promote their own industrialization, said people familiar with the development.
The United States, the European Union and other proponents on Monday apparently failed to provide any convincing reasons as to why the World Trade Organization’s 1998 moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions should be continued beyond the 13th ministerial conference, which is going to be held in Abu Dhabi in February 2024, our correspondent writes.
India has upended the ongoing Doha fisheries subsidies negotiations at the World Trade Organization, by circulating a comprehensive proposal that seeks some fundamental changes in addressing overcapacity and overfishing. Under the scope of the proposal, India calls for the inclusion of “fuel subsidies, whether specific or non-specific” since they have the same harmful impact on the marine environment and S&DT The determination of “what would constitute low-income or resource-poor or livelihood fishing and fishing related activities should be decided by the national authorities,” India says.
Tuesday, at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) meeting chaired by Petter Ølberg of Norway, several pronouncements were made regarding ongoing disputes between member nations and concerns about the functioning and reform of the Appellate Body.
This year's World Trade Report, released Septemebr 12, examines the benefits of re-globalization – or integrating more people, economies and pressing issues into global trade and strengthening …
The facilitator overseeing the informal discussions concerning the reform of the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement system is planning to issue a draft negotiating text next week after ongoing intense meetings in different groups focused on drafting, implementation and peer review among others, WTD has learned. The intense discussions apparently began early this week. Based on ongoing discussions among members in different groups, the facilitator, Marco Molina, the deputy trade envoy of Guatemala, is expected to issue his draft text next week, said a person, who is familiar with the ongoing discussions.
The United States and India announced Friday they have agreed to settle their last outstanding dispute at the World Trade Organization, dealing with India’s ban on US poultry due to concerns about Avian Influenza. The announcement follows a meeting between President Biden and Indian Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi.
New Zealand is the latest country to deposited its instrument of acceptance of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, making it the first country from the Oceania region to join. With New Zealand’s acceptance, the WTO has received nearly 40 percent of the acceptances needed for the Fisheries Agreement to enter into force. Two-thirds of WTO members must accept the Agreement before it can come into effect.
World Trade Organization Doha fisheries subsidies negotiations Chair Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland has issued a draft text on the “disciplines on subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing” pillar for upcoming negotiations in the fall, WTD has learned. The five-page restricted room document (RD/TN/RL/174) issued on Monday and seen by our correspondent, appears to contain asymmetries in the provision of carveouts to big subsidizers who contributed to the problem of global depletion of fish stocks on the one side, and special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries on the other, said people familiar with the text.
World Trade Organization Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala addressed central bankers in Jackson Hole last week, making the case for trade central bankers and the trade community to work together, along with a neologism that may take some further selling. A retreat from open global trade would undermine this supply “flexicurity” that comes when firms and households have more outside options from which to purchase goods and services.
China has accused the United States of transforming from a defender to a “destroyer” of the multilateral trading system in a report on US compliance with its World Trade Organization commitments. In the report, Beijing laments Washington’s continued resort to “unilateralism, protectionism and bullying hegemonism, which has brought severe shocks to the multilateral trading system,” destabilizing the global economy.
When trade ministers of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries convene a two-day meeting at the end of this month, India will seek to insert strong language in the final declaration on preserving and safeguarding the World Trade Organization’s two-tier dispute settlement system, our correspondent writes. G20 trade ministers are slated to meet August 25-26 in Jaipur, the pink city of India.
The USTR is mandated by law to annually report to Congress on Russia's implementation of WTO agreements, including agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and Intellectual Property Rights, as well as its progress towards acceding to the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). The USTR is currently soliciting public comments for this year's report to gauge Russia's compliance with the commitments made during accession. Specific areas of interest include import and export regulations, subsidies, standards, sanitary measures, intellectual property rights, government procurement, rule of law issues, trade facilitation, and other WTO commitment
This notice informs the public of the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standard-setting activities of the Codex Alimentarius (Codex). The USCO is responsible for publishing annual notices in the Federal Register regarding SPS activities of Codex, detailing standards under consideration, descriptions of such considerations, U.S. participation, agendas, and agency responsibilities. The notice also seeks public comments on current or planned standards.
The facilitator overseeing informal discussions on reforming the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement system says there are “highly sensitive issues for which Members still hold different conceptual views about how to tackle them,” said people familiar with the discussions. To overcome the continued paralysis in the two-tier dispute settlement system, trade ministers at the 12th ministerial meeting last year mandated their respective representatives at the WTO to “commit to conduct discussions with the view to having a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all Members by 2024.”
The African Group, comprised of over 50 developing and underdeveloped countries, proposes "achievable and credible" measures to cut trade-distorting domestic support and blue and green box subsidies worth hundreds of billions of US dollars, our correspondent writes. The proposal contends that green box subsidies are becoming increasingly trade-distorting, thereby questioning the premise that these agricultural supports do not affect trade.
More than 50 countries of the African Group as well as Pakistan have raised a red flag against seemingly asymmetrical provisions in the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Agriculture that fail to provide a special safeguard mechanism to face sudden and unforeseen surges in food products. While industrialized countries such as the United States, the European Union, Japan, Norway and several developing countries are able to cushion their agriculture with safeguard provisions in the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture to stop unforeseen imports of agricultural products, a large majority of developing countries do not have such a facility.
World Trade Organization General Council Chair Ambassador Athaliah Lesiba Molokomme of Botswana is planning an informal meeting on September 26 to discuss two different forms of industrialization policies as proposed by the European Union on the one hand and the African Group on the other. The African Group of more than 50 countries is calling for “policy space for industrial development,” making a case for rebalancing trade rules to promote industrialization and to address emerging challenges such as climate change, concentration of production and digital industrialization.
