Informal negotiations on revising the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement rules "are nearing their conclusion," Marco Molina, the Guatemala deputy permanent representative, told members of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body at its Dec. 18 meeting. Molina said the goal is to have a "fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024," according to the WTO.

Turkish duties on a host of U.S. products in retaliation for President Donald Trump's Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs violate World Trade Organization commitments, a WTO dispute panel ruled Dec. 19. The panel said the duties violate articles I and II of the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and also found that the Section 232 duties are not "safeguards."

India appealed an April World Trade Organization panel report that said its duties on information and communications technology goods destined to the EU violated India's tariff commitments, the WTO announced Dec. 14 (see 2304170018). The EU, Japan and Taiwan each have brought cases to the WTO to dispute the Indian tariffs, and India filed a similar appeal of Japan's case against the tariffs in May (see 2305250056). The WTO can't address the appeals because it doesn't have a functioning appellate body (see 2311200078).

Chile formally accepted the agreement on fisheries subsidies on Dec. 12, bringing to 53 the number of World Trade Organization members to have accepted the deal, the WTO announced. This number is "nearly half" of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification. Claudia Sanhueza Riveros, Chile's undersecretary of international economic relations, said the deal "is a very important agreement, especially for countries in the Pacific, where our marine ecosystems are generally being overexploited. It also seeks to address the global challenges we face in terms of the sustainability of our environment and our oceans.”

The convenors of e-commerce negotiations at the World Trade Organization -- Australia, Japan and Singapore -- are hoping the talks can conclude in early 2024, the WTO said. Unveiling a negotiating road map during a recent meeting, the three countries said the remaining few weeks of 2023 will focus "on bridging the gaps on outstanding issues, such as e-payments, telecommunications and information and communication technology products that use cryptography." Participants in the talks have now "parked" the negotiating text on privacy, the WTO added, raising the number of "parked," or temporarily concluded, topics to 13. Remaining topics include the "scope, exceptions and legal architecture of the future agreement."

South Africa recently submitted paperwork at the World Trade Organization saying it wishes to end the moratorium on charging tariffs on electronic transmissions, arguing that it provides global tech firms with a "distinct unfair tax advantage over local competitors in developing countries," and also deprives countries where those purchases are made of corporate tax revenue. South Africa said the international taxation being considered for tech giants is a useful step, but "will not result in developing countries individually benefiting to any material extent and does not resolve the fundamental problem generated primarily by the lack of digital tariffs which can enable more sustainable promotion of investment in developing countries."

The World Trade Organization Secretariat, at the UN Summit on Climate Change, recommended that countries lower their import tariffs to increase the uptake of low-carbon technologies, reform environmentally harmful subsidies, facilitate trade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for idling vehicles at the border, and improve coordination of carbon pricing "to reduce policy fragmentation and compliance costs."

The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body on Nov. 27 agreed to Indonesia's request to set up a dispute panel to review the EU's countervailing duties on biodiesel from Indonesia, the WTO announced. The EU said it believes its duties "are fully justified, adding that it is confident its measures will be declared in line with WTO law," the WTO said. The U.S., the U.K., Norway, Russia, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, China, Canada, Argentina and Turkey reserved their third party rights to take part in the panel proceedings.

Uzbekistan has ramped up World Trade Organization accession process, the WTO announced. Since the last working party meeting, which took place in March, Uzbekistan "has sustained its technical engagement" on both the bilateral and multilateral fronts, submitted a host of updated documents for the next working party meeting, and "introduced a number of critical policy and institutional measures" to ramp up talks, South Korea's Ambassador Yun Seong-deok, who chairs the working party, said. Uzbekistan's Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjayev laid out various institutional changes to move the negotiations forward, including "the establishment of a special department in the Ministry of Justice for ensuring compliance with WTO rules and the creation of WTO divisions in 20 ministries and agencies."

The World Trade Organization's Committee on Trade in Civil Aircraft on Nov. 17 agreed to Brazil's terms of accession to the Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft, the WTO announced. Brazil will submit the agreement along with its commitments to the nation's National Congress for approval. Brazil originally submitted its application to accede to the deal in June 2022. Marcio Elias Rosa, Brazil's deputy minister and executive secretary of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, highlighted Brazil's "unwavering commitment to the principles of the WTO and the enhancement of international supply chain," WTO said.