WTO fails on dispute reforms earlier than Trump takes workplace, US ambassador says

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – World Commerce Group members didn’t agree on reforms to revive a damaged commerce dispute settlement system over the last Basic Council assembly earlier than U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes workplace in January, outgoing U.S. WTO ambassador Maria Pagan stated on Wednesday.

Pagan additionally instructed reporters in a briefing that the assembly on Monday and Tuesday in Geneva additionally failed to provide fisheries agreements on extra fishing capability and overfishing.

The WTO has been attempting for years to repair its dispute settlement system, which was rendered inoperative in 2019 after the U.S. blocked Appellate Physique decide appointments over what it noticed as judicial overreach in commerce disputes. The talks, revived earlier this yr, had aimed to interchange and reform the appellate physique.

Pagan, who led WTO negotiations for the U.S. Commerce Consultant’s Workplace in the course of the Biden administration, stated there was some progress within the talks, however members remained divided on the important thing subject of “what sort of enchantment is important and acceptable.”

By three U.S. administrations, beginning with President Barack Obama’s, Washington has accused the WTO Appellate Physique of overstepping its boundaries, making new commerce guidelines in its choices that weren’t negotiated by the WTO’s 166 member economies.

“I do assume that some members have been nonetheless simply hoping that we might simply change our minds, which, you realize, we have now not,” Pagan stated.

She stated the U.S. was prepared to discover many good concepts, however would nonetheless push for what it believes in.

“I do hope that individuals take it critically,” she added. “If they need us to be a part of the system, then, you realize, take us critically.

NO TRUMP CONTACT

Pagan, a longtime profession lawyer at USTR and the Commerce Division, stated that she has had no contact with the Trump transition group and declined to remark when requested whether or not she had recommendation for Trump’s nominee to guide USTR, Jamieson Greer.

Greer served as USTR chief of workers throughout Trump’s first time period and helped to impose steep tariffs on $370 billion price of Chinese language items and world metal and aluminum imports in 2018 and 2019.

WTO dispute panels discovered that the China tariffs and the metals tariffs broke WTO commerce guidelines, however the rulings have had no consequence due to the damaged appellate perform. A WTO panel additionally dominated final yr in opposition to China’s retaliatory tariffs on imports from the U.S.

Trump, who takes workplace on Jan. 20, has vowed to impose tariffs of 60% on Chinese language items and no less than 10% on all different world imports, strikes that might upend commerce flows, increase prices for U.S. companies and customers and draw widespread retaliation in opposition to American exports.

The following WTO Basic Council assembly is scheduled for Feb. 18-19.

Pagan stated, nevertheless, that the WTO’s facilitator for dispute settlement negotiations, Ambassador Usha Dwarka-Canabady of Mauritius, has left the submit, leaving the necessity to discover a successor earlier than talks can transfer ahead.