Goods
Council Addresses High Number of Trade Concerns, Notification Issues, LDC
Graduation
·
Council
elected Ambassador Etienne Oudot de Dainville of France as its New Chair for 2022
·
Tariffs
and tariff rate quotas, import and export bans and restrictions, technical
barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary
measures, alleged discriminatory domestic taxation, domestic content
requirements, import licensing requirements and countervailing duties
·
Members
took the floor to express their strong opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian Federation responded by saying that the WTO was not the proper
venue for a discussion of this nature
·
Concern
over the restrictive measures introduced by several members on Russian products
and sectors in response to the conflict
·
LDC
Group proposal on measures to allow graduated LDCs with a gross national
product (GNP) below USD 1,000 to be granted benefits
·
Exemption
from the provision on export subsidies
The Council for Trade in Goods discussed 41 trade concerns on
measures maintained or newly introduced by WTO members at its meeting on 21-22 April.
As part of efforts to improve transparency, the Council considered a revised document
on the status of notifications under the provisions of the multilateral agreements
that govern trade in goods. Members also continued discussions on the Least-Developed
Countries (LDC) Group’s proposal concerning countries graduating from LDC status.
The Goods Council elected Ambassador Etienne Oudot de
Dainville of France as its new chair.
The Council
heard 41 trade concerns on measures maintained or newly introduced by 25 WTO members,
which included 11 new issues. These concerns were raised over a wide range of measures,
including tariffs and tariff rate quotas, import and export bans and restrictions,
technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary
measures, alleged discriminatory domestic taxation, domestic content requirements,
import licensing requirements and countervailing duties.
The measures
encompass a wide range of sectors (e.g. agricultural, information technology, fisheries,
forestry and food products) as well as specific products, such as air conditioners,
apples, cheese, cosmetics, energy drinks, instant coffee, mobile phones, pears,
plain copier paper, pulses, tyres and steel. The full
agenda of the meeting, including the list of trade concerns discussed, is available
here.
Many
members took the floor to express their strong opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian Federation responded by saying that the WTO was not the proper venue
for a discussion of this nature and expressing concern over the restrictive measures
introduced by several members on Russian products and sectors in response to the
conflict. These members noted those measures would not have been introduced if Russia
had not invaded Ukraine.
Members
welcomed the report by the WTO Secretariat in document G/L/223/Rev.29, which
contains the status of notifications under the provisions of WTO agreements in Annex 1A of the WTO Agreement. The
document's latest revision updates the information on the notifications submitted
by members up to 31 December 2021.
Members
considered the document very informative and thanked the Secretariat for the update.
Some members expressed concern about the lack of improvement in notifications compliance
across agreements since the report's previous revision. They further noted that
the challenge of incomplete and missing notifications was not limited to members
of a particular region or grouping, but widespread, despite the availability of
Secretariat assistance and training opportunities.
Members
reiterated that addressing the operation and effectiveness of current notification
practices, as recommended in the proposal
on transparency and notification procedures, would be a practical
means of making progress on these issues with a view to strengthening the WTO's
performance in this area.
The chair,
Ambassador Lundeg Purevsuren
of Mongolia, drew members' attention to the Beta version of the Notifications Portal,
available in notifications.wto.org, which
was released by the Secretariat at the beginning of this year for members' review.
The portal seeks to consolidate, under a single system, all general information
concerning notifications and the information for the agreements on trade in goods
summarized and presented following the template of document G/L/223/Rev.29.
Members
discussed again the LDC Group proposal on measures to allow graduated LDCs with
a gross national product (GNP) below USD 1,000 to be granted benefits pursuant to
the provision of Article 27.2 of the Agreement
on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, i.e. exemption from the provision
on export subsidies (WT/GC/W/742-G/C/W/752).
On behalf
of the LDC Group, Chad said that an agreement on this decision would make an important
contribution to remedying the difficult circumstances that graduating LDCs were
encountering, particularly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict
in Ukraine. It would also contribute to the further integration of LDCs in the multilateral
trading system.
Some
developed country members acknowledged the challenges that LDC members were facing
as a result of two consecutive and overlapping global crises but also noted gaps
remaining in the information that is needed for this proposal to be workable from
a technical perspective. Nevertheless, they stood ready to consider ideas and proposals
with the LDC Group as to how to address those gaps.
The Council
was not able to reach a consensus on a slate of names for its subsidiary bodies.
Members agreed to suspend this agenda item and to reconvene the Council as soon
as a slate of names was ready for its consideration.
At the
end of the meeting, the Council elected Ambassador Etienne Oudot
de Dainville of France as its new chair for 2022, and
thanked Ambassador Lundeg Purevsuren
of Mongolia for his service as chair for 2021.