The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's March 31 meeting includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of DSB recommendations on antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. Status reports also are expected from Indonesia on measures related to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products, and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products.

World Trade Organization members on the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights elected Thailand's Pimchanok Pitfield as chair of the council for the next year during the March 16-17 council meeting, the WTO said. During the meeting, WTO members also discussed whether to extend the TRIPS decision (see 2206170010) to cover COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics, a decision that had a deadline in December but which has been pushed back twice and is now scheduled for the next TRIPS council meeting in June. Current council chair Lansana Gberie of Sierra Leone said that members should "plan well in advance if they want to achieve results" in the coming months.

South Korea will withdraw its World Trade Organization complaint over Japan's export controls on fluorinated polymide, hydrogen fluoride and resist following Japan's finding that South Korea enhanced its export control authority, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's announced March 16. METI said it will relax controls over the exports of the three items to South Korea and remind domestic companies it is their responsibility to check the end-users of their products. METI made the announcement following an export control policy dialogue with South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, held March 14-16. The issue stemmed from a years old Japan-South Korea export control dispute, which included Japan removing South Korea from its list of trusted trading partners in 2019 (see 1907010020, 1908080026 and 1910240032).

The World Trade Organization's Informal Working Group on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises approved a new work program March 13 and called for papers on MSMEs provisions in regional trade agreements that will inform the working group's work on this issue. The new work program will center on boosting MSMEs access to information, building capacity to generate inclusion of MSMEs in international trade, providing policy guidance, implementing the 2020 MSMEs package and engaging in the private sector. The U.S. also joined the group, along with Barbados, bringing the total participating countries to 97.

Participants at the March 13 meeting of the World Trade Organization's plastics dialogue discussed the 13th Ministerial Conference and the possibility of slashing plastics pollution, the WTO said. The U.S. also joined as a co-sponsor of the initiative, the WTO announced.

World Trade Organization members recently agreed to establish "information-sharing sessions" as part of the WTO's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea stemmed from consultations held by Cambodia's Ambassador Kemvichet Long, chair of the WTO's Services Council. Discussions will cover the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various service sectors, the trade-facilitative steps introduced by members and the pandemic's impact on less-developed countries.

Seychelles adopted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, making it the third country and first African nation to accept the deal. To take effect, the agreement requires adoption by two-thirds of WTO members. "Healthier seas and oceans are vital for the prosperity and resilience of Seychelles' fisheries and tourism industries. Seychelles' formal acceptance also signals the importance of the Agreement to Africa. I am hopeful this will pave the way for others in the region to follow suit," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said March 10.

The Japanese Cabinet on March 10 greenlighted that nation's participation in the World Trade Organization's multiparty interim appeal arbitration (MPIA) agreement -- an alternative to the trade body's defunct Appellate Body (see 2303010026). The MPIA was initiated in April 2020 as a response to U.S. blocking the nomination process to the Appellate Body. The MPIA process released its first ruling in a dispute over Colombian antidumping duties on frozen fries from several EU countries (see 2212230025).

Meaningful outcomes at the World Trade Organization's 13th Ministerial Conference in February 2024 are "not beyond our reach," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at the first General Council meeting in 2023. Ambassador Didier Chambovey, General Council chair, during the meeting pointed to a host of issues as areas that can be addressed by MC13, including WTO reform efforts such as dispute settlement, negotiating and monitoring functions, and institutional issues.

The World Trade Organization on March 7 announced chairpersons for various WTO committees. Among the WTO bodies, the General Council will be led by Athaliah Lesiba Molokomme of Botswana; the Dispute Settlement Body will be led by Petter Olberg of Norway; the Trade Policy Review Body will be chaired by Saqer Abdullah Almoqbel of Saudi Arabia; and the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights will be headed by Pimchanok Pitfield of Thailand.