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TWN
Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (May25/07) Yerevan, 28 Apr (D. Ravi Kanth) — For the 86th time, the United States blocked a proposal from Colombia on behalf of 130 countries for filling the seven vacancies at the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body, which has been made dysfunctional by Washington since December 2019, a development that has seemingly “partially decimated” the enforcement function of the global trade body, said people familiar with the development. At a meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) on 25 April, the US stuck to its longstanding position by unilaterally blocking the proposal from 130 countries on grounds that the Appellate Body has departed from the WTO Agreements, said people familiar with the development. It is not clear whether the WTO’s Director-General, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had raised the issues of the continued paralysis of the Appellate Body and reform of the dispute settlement system during her meeting with the US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer last week, said people familiar with the development. At the DSB meeting, 25 members took the floor demanding the urgent restoration of the two-tiered dispute settlement system, with several members having emphasized that the heightened trade turbulence made it imperative to restore the binding Appellate Body for providing stability, said people familiar with the development. Meanwhile, the DSB agreed to the establishment of a dispute panel, at the request of China, to rule on the definitive countervailing duties imposed by the European Union on new battery electric vehicles from China. Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mexico, Norway, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkiye, the United Kingdom and the US reserved their third-party rights to participate in the proceedings. At the meeting, China said the EU’s countervailing duties remain inconsistent with various provisions of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM), said people familiar with the development. The EU, however, regretted China’s second panel request despite its attempts to clarify the countervailing duties with China during bilateral consultations. Brussels expressed confidence that it will succeed in the dispute, said people familiar with the development. +
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