Uzbekistan wants to join the World Trade Organization by 2026, a "high-level government delegation" from the Central Asian nation said during the 9th meeting of the Working Party on the Accession of Uzbekistan. Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjaev said Uzbekistan is looking to "intensify efforts to finalize outstanding negotiations and harmonize its legal and regulatory frameworks with WTO agreements." The delegation noted that since the last meeting of the working party, the nation has concluded negotiations with nine additional members, bringing the total of completed bilateral talks to 22. The chair of the working party, South Korea's Yun Seong-deok, encouraged members to ramp up their engagement with Uzbekistan next year and wants to reconvene the working party in spring 2025.
Jordan opened a safeguard investigation on safety and protective footwear, the World Trade Organization said. Jordan notified the WTO Committee on Safeguards that it opened the proceeding on Dec. 1, and that interested parties should identify themselves by Dec. 22 and provide written comments by Jan. 14.
A World Trade Organization dispute panel ruled on Dec. 5 that Panama's phytosanitary restrictions on strawberries, pineapples, bananas, plantains and dairy and meat products from Costa Rica violated WTO rules.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed director-general of the World Trade Organization for a second four-year term to begin on Sept. 1, the WTO announced. Okonjo-Iweala was initially elevated to the position in 2021, becoming the first woman and first African to head the global trade body. In a statement on the reappointment, the director-general said she remains "firmly committed to delivering results that matter -- results that ultimately improve the lives of people around the world. By promoting trade as a driver of economic growth and resilience, the WTO will continue to provide a collaborative platform for Members to address shared global challenges."
The World Trade Organization's dispute settlement body on Nov. 25 agreed to establish a dispute settlement panel to review Colombia's compliance with an earlier ruling finding its antidumping duties on frozen fries from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands violated WTO rules (see 2411140017).
The EU on Nov. 24 formally requested dispute settlement consultations at the World Trade Organization regarding China's antidumping duties on EU brandy imports. China has 10 days to respond to the request to find a mutually convenient format and date for the talks.
The chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations at the World Trade Organization, Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, is looking to wrap up the second wave of fisheries negotiations by the General Council meeting in December. Gunnarsson said he held meetings with 28 WTO members and group representatives, finding that the "overwhelming majority" of these parties "consider that the draft text" on the fisheries subsidies talks "serves as the basis" for reaching a final deal.
The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's Nov. 25 meeting includes a request from the EU to suspend certain concessions to the U.S. due to its antidumping and countervailing duties on ripe olives from Spain.
The EU asked the World Trade Organization to establish a compliance panel regarding Colombia's tariffs on frozen fries from the EU, the Directorate-General for Trade announced Nov. 14. The bloc decided to make the move after consultations between the parties fell through, the Directorate-General said.
Restrictive trade measures from 20 of the world's leading economies "significantly increased" over the past year, the World Trade Organization found in its 31st Trade Monitoring Report. While the Group of 20 countries also imposed 141 trade facilitating measures, the report said that from October 2023 to October 2024, G20 nations imposed 91 new trade-restrictive measures covering around $828.9 billion worth of goods, up from about $246 billion worth of goods in the last report, which covered restrictions imposed from mid-May to mid-October 2023.