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TWN
Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Mar25/13) Geneva, 24 Mar (D. Ravi Kanth) — The United States is understood to have claimed that the World Trade Organization has become irrelevant, as it failed to deliver on WTO reforms, at an official meeting on 21 March of the Group of 20 (G20) Trade and Investment Working Group in Pretoria, South Africa, said people familiar with the development. As the US continues to press ahead with its allegedly unilateral tariffs against countries across the board while also preparing the ground for unveiling its reciprocal tariff plan on 2 April, Washington appears to be simultaneously echoing that the 166-member trade body is irrelevant on grounds that it does not address the core concerns of the US, said people who asked not to be quoted. The 2025 Trade Policy Agenda of the US suggests that Washington “will continue to look for new avenues to make the WTO more relevant and viable in light of the realities of today, but it will do so with an appreciation that meaningful reform will require participation by other Members, including those that have benefited from the failure of the WTO to fulfill its objectives.” “LIBERATION DAY” On the issue of reciprocal tariffs, US President Donald Trump declared in his social media website Truth Social on 21 March that “April 2nd is Liberation Day in America!!!” “For DECADES we have been ripped off and abused by every nation in the World, both friend and foe. Now it is finally time for the Good Ol’ USA to get some of that MONEY, and RESPECT, BACK. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!” The seemingly unilateral route being adopted by the US in constructing the huge matrix of reciprocal tariffs against several trading partners without their consent suggests a deadly assault on the raison d’etre of the WTO, and harks back to the “naked colonial trade arrangements of the 19th century,” said several analysts. However, the WTO’s leadership, particularly the Director-General, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, appears to have remained totally silent on the issue of the US reciprocal tariffs, an exercise that allegedly has no legitimacy in the rules-based multilateral trading system, said people familiar with the development. “The DG is scared to death about speaking against the US at this juncture, and if anything, she wants countries to sort it out themselves,” said a person, who asked not to be quoted. Even Canada, a close trading partner of the US, has not only retaliated against Washington’s 25% tariff on Canadian goods that came into effect more than ten days ago, but simultaneously also launched dispute settlement proceedings against the US at the WTO. Significantly, Canada has raised a question against the US tariffs, which will come up for discussion at the WTO’s Committee on Agriculture on 24 March. Canada sought to know (in document G/AG/W/252) why on 4 March 2025, the United States (US) implemented tariffs on its imports of goods – including 25% tariffs (ad valorem basis) on all agriculture goods – from Canada and Mexico, its two close allies and trading partners, including as parties to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Canada said that “the US WTO Goods Schedule contains bound tariffs set below 25% (ad valorem basis) across every agriculture-related HS Chapter and group of products (Agreement on Agriculture Annex 1 definition), including grains and oilseeds, meat and meat products, fruits, nuts and vegetables, dairy products as well as processed agri-food products and beverages, with only very few products with bound tariffs set above 25% (ad valorem basis).” Canada argued that “as such, this [US] measure is a blatant violation of the US’ market access obligations at the WTO, negatively impacting over USD 35 billion worth of annual agriculture and agri-food imports from Canada (2020-2024 average).” Ottawa asked whether the US has considered “the severe negative impacts of these unjust tariffs on the rules- based multilateral trading system?” More importantly, Canada sought to know from the US whether it has considered the impacts such tariffs will have on North American and global food security, economic growth and prosperity. Moreover, Canada said considering the highly integrated nature of North America’s supply chains, including in the agricultural sector, has the US considered the negative impacts these tariffs will have on inflation, including food prices? MARITIME TENSIONS In another significant development concerning the likely tensions arising between the US and China in the shipbuilding sector in the near future, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) issued a notice on 21 March, initiating public hearings regarding the Section 301 investigations into China’s alleged targeting of “the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors for dominance.” According to a press note, the USTR suggested that under its Section 301 (b) of the Trade Act of 1974, the investigations, as a result of five national labour unions filing a petition with the USTR, will look into “the acts, policies, and practices of China targeting the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors for dominance.” At issue is the Trump administration’s fears that the gap between the US on the one side, and China on the other, has widened in the shipbuilding sector, with China having overtaken the US and other countries in this sector, said people familiar with the development. The Financial Times’ columnist Rana Foroohar said on 22 March that the hearings initiated by the Office of the USTR would zero in on “proposed remedies to combat China’s ring-fencing of the global maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors.” According to the writer, the vast disparity in commercial shipping today between the US, with 185 ocean-going commercial vessels, in comparison to China’s 5,500 vessels provides a huge advantage to China in the global maritime sector. “In theory, Beijing could turn off the American economy by choking off access to that shipping fleet and blockading the most important supply chains through the South China Sea,” said Foroohar. While the proposed US reciprocal tariffs appear to have become a source of grave concern for the US trading partners, Washington’s recent appeals to several countries for the immediate supply of millions of eggs have already sent clear signals of how disruptions could occur in the food supply chains, said a person, who asked not to be quoted. On 21 March, the US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said she is “focused on egg prices, in the last month, especially,” adding that though the prices have come down, “the market is a tricky thing.” She announced that the US is importing eggs from Turkey and South Korea, and is also talking to a couple of other countries, adding that “we haven’t signed that deal yet, so I don’t want to say who it is.” “We are talking in the hundreds of millions of eggs for the short term,” said Rollins. The US is reportedly facing several outbreaks of avian flu, and that it could take some time for the chicken populations to be “re-populated”. +
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