The announcement was made during the WTO General Council in Geneva, Switzerland, where he met with the WTO Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala….reports Asian Lite News
The General Council of the WTO has elected Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, as Chair of the World Trade Organisation’s 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13).
The Ministerial Conference, attended by leading representatives from the 164 countries and customs blocs that make up the WTO, will take place in Abu Dhabi in February 2024.
MC13 comes at a critical time for world trade, and the conference will build on the outcomes of MC12, review the performance of the multilateral trading system, make decisions on the future work of the WTO, and set up the roadmap for MC14.
“This is a pivotal moment for world trade,” commented Al Zeyoudi. “As a Ministerial Conference, we have to tackle pressing issues and challenges, consider all the forces shaping the future of trade and come up with clear solutions, and challenge ourselves to take actionable decisions that move the needle on making trade more efficient, inclusive and sustainable.
“At the heart of all of this is the need to modernise trade and embed technology across supply chains, and we look forward to working closely with all the members of the WTO to make real progress at MC13. Our goal must be driving forward momentum for more change at the conference in Abu Dhabi next year, but also in the years to come, and I have the utmost confidence in our collective ability to make this happen.”
The announcement was made during the WTO General Council in Geneva, Switzerland, where he met with the WTO Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
During their meeting they discussed the preparations for MC13, in addition to the landmark inclusion of trade as a thematic day at COP28, which is set to take place in Dubai later this year.
Dr. Thani delivered his first address as Chair at the General Council, where he stressed the importance of building resilient trade frameworks to tackle today’s challenging landscape.
In his address, he called for focused and decisive deliberations amongst WTO members ahead of MC13, and commented, “Trade policy extends far beyond the scope of trade itself; it is about shaping our common future. It is our collective responsibility to contribute to a predictable, rules-based, and open trade and investment environment that creates prosperity for all – and this is precisely why the success of MC13 is so imperative.”
According to the report, global trade growth should rebound to 3.2% in 2024, as global GDP growth picks up to 2.6%…reports Asian Lite News
Global trade growth in 2023 is still expected to be subpar despite a slight upgrade to GDP projections since last fall, WTO economists said in a new forecast on 5th April.
Weighed down by the effects of the crisis in Ukraine, stubbornly high inflation, tighter monetary policy and financial market uncertainty, the volume of world merchandise trade is expected to grow by 1.7 per cent this year, following 2.7 per cent growth in 2022, a smaller-than-expected increase that was pulled down by a sharp slump in the fourth quarter.
The WTO’s trade projections, set out in the new “Global Trade Outlook and Statistics” report, estimate real global GDP growth at market exchange rates of 2.4 per cent for 2023.
Projections for both trade and output growth are below the averages for the past 12 years of 2.6 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said: “Trade continues to be a force for resilience in the global economy, but it will remain under pressure from external factors in 2023. This makes it even more important for governments to avoid trade fragmentation and refrain from introducing obstacles to trade. Investing in multilateral cooperation on trade, as WTO members did at our Twelfth Ministerial Conference last June, would bolster economic growth and people’s living standards over the long term.”
The 2.7 per cent increase in world trade volume in 2022 was weaker than the WTO’s October forecast of 3.5 per cent, as a sharper-than-expected quarter-on-quarter decline in the fourth quarter dragged down growth for the year. Several factors contributed to that slump, including elevated global commodity prices, monetary policy tightening in response to inflation, and outbreaks of COVID-19 that disrupted production and trade in China.
Notably, trade growth last year turned out to be in line with the 2.4 per cent to 3.0 per cent baseline scenario in the WTO’s March 2022 initial report on the war in Ukraine, and well above its more pessimistic scenario in which trade would have grown just 0.5 per cent as countries started to split into competing economic blocs. In the event, international markets remained broadly open. A follow-up study the WTO released last month documented how vulnerable economies were able to compensate for essential food supplies cut off by the war by finding alternative products and suppliers.
The 1.7 per cent forecast for trade growth in 2023, meanwhile, is up from the previous estimate of 1.0 per cent from last October. A key factor here is the relaxation of COVID-19 pandemic controls in China, which is expected to unleash pent-up consumer demand in the country, in turn boosting international trade.
WTO Chief Economist Ralph Ossa said: “The lingering effects of COVID-19 and the rising geopolitical tensions were the main factors impacting trade and output in 2022 and this is likely to be the case in 2023 as well. Interest rate hikes in advanced economies have also revealed weaknesses in banking systems that could lead to wider financial instability if left unchecked. Governments and regulators need to be alert to these and other financial risks in the coming months.”
Looking ahead to 2024, trade growth should rebound to 3.2 per cent, as GDP picks up to 2.6 per cent, but this estimate is more uncertain than usual due to the presence of substantial downside risks, including geopolitical tensions, food supply shocks, and the possibility of unforeseen fallout from monetary tightening.
Interest rate hikes in advanced economies have also revealed weaknesses in banking systems that could lead to wider financial instability if left unchecked, he said.
“Governments and regulators need to be alert to these and other financial risks in the coming months,” he added.
“Trade continues to be a force for resilience in the global economy, but it will remain under pressure from external factors in 2023. This makes it even more important for governments to avoid trade fragmentation and refrain from introducing obstacles to trade,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said.
“Investing in multilateral cooperation on trade, as WTO members did at our Twelfth Ministerial Conference last June, would bolster economic growth and people’s living standards over the long term,” she stressed.
According to the report, global trade growth should rebound to 3.2 percent in 2024, as global GDP growth picks up to 2.6 percent.
The estimate is more uncertain than usual due to the presence of substantial downside risks, including geopolitical tensions, food supply shocks, and the possibility of unforeseen fallout from monetary tightening, the report added.
The WHO member states have already tried to force the health body, which typically avoids taking a stance on politics, into taking action over the invasion…reports Asian Lite News
Russia may sever ties with prominent global bodies as President Vladimir Putin continues to isolate his nation from the West following the invasion of Ukraine, Daily Mail reported.
Moscow’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday sent a list of international organisations to the parliament, with orders to review it and break ‘obligations [or] treaties which do not bring benefit, but direct damage to our country’, deputy speaker Pyotr Tolstoy said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Trade Organisation are among the names on the list, Russian news agencies reported.
It comes after Western countries cut off large parts of the Russian economy from the global trade via sanctions, with hundreds of Western businesses pulling out of the country to protest the war.
The WHO member states have already tried to force the health body, which typically avoids taking a stance on politics, into taking action over the invasion, Daily Mail reported.
Just last week, they had voted in favour of a non-binding resolution condemning Russian attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities, and the effect of the war on public health.
The same resolution also called on WHO chiefs to consider closing their office in Moscow and relocating it outside the country.
Russia condemned the resolution as “exclusively political in nature” and said it had no bearing on healthcare provisions in either country.
Plans to withdraw from the WTO, which sets benchmarks for global trade for its members, have been tabled in Moscow many times before.
Russia only joined the global body in 2012 after 19 years of negotiations, with many viewing some of its terms as unfavourable to Moscow while also giving the West a tool with which to punish the country.
The WTO arbitrator issued the decision on Wednesday on the level of countermeasures China may request in its dispute with the United States regarding US countervailing duties on certain products from China….reports Asian Lite News
The World Trade Organisation issued a decision in the US-China dispute over subsidy duties on Wednesday and said that Beijing can impose duties on USD 645 million worth of US imports annually.
“We determine that the level of N/I of benefits accruing to China as a result of the WTO-inconsistent methodologies used by the United States in the CVD proceedings concerning products imported from China is USD 645.121 million per annum,” said a decision by the WTO arbitrator on Wednesday.
“Therefore, in accordance with Article 22 of the DSU, China may request authorization from the DSB (Dispute Settlement Body) to suspend concessions or other obligations at a level not exceeding USD 645.121 million per annum,” read the decision by the arbitrator.
The WTO arbitrator issued the decision on Wednesday on the level of countermeasures China may request in its dispute with the United States regarding US countervailing duties on certain products from China.
“In light of the parties’ arguments and evidence in these proceedings, we have determined that the appropriate level of N/I is USD 645.121 million per annum. We have calculated this figure based on the parties’ agreement to use a two-step Armington model,” said the decision.
The decision also said that the present arbitration proceedings arise in a dispute initiated by China against the United States. The challenged measures of the United States relating to the imposition of countervailing duties on a range of Chinese products, and the investigations leading to the imposition of such duties. These measures were found to be WTO-inconsistent in the original and compliance proceedings, following which China requested the DSB authorization to suspend concessions at an annual amount of USD 2.4 billion, according to WTO.
Calls for blacklisting Chinese firms
An international cross-party network of legislators across the European Union, the United Kingdom, India, Australia and Canada have called on their governments to block investors from bankrolling firms perpetrating forced labour abuses in China’s Xinjiang province.
This comes after reports emerged that HSBC has held shares in a subsidiary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), which was hit by US Treasury Department sanctions in 2020.
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) said the 35 legislators, representing over 10 countries, urged their governments to draw up a blacklist of entities identified as perpetrating atrocities in the Uyghur Region, with firms barred from investing in blacklisted entities.
The calls were made in a series of separate letters, attached, coordinated by the IPAC and sent last week.
Prominent signatories include Reinhard Butikofer MEP, chair of the European Parliament’s China delegation; Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, former leader of the UK Conservative party; Australia Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching and Indian BJD MP Sujeet Kumar. The letters were addressed to the legislators’ respective finance ministers, including European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness and UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
The calls come after it was revealed that HSBC had purchased GBP £2.2 million of shares in Xinjiang Tianye, a plastics manufacturer owned by the XPCC, IPAC said in a press release.
“The XPCC, a Chinese state-operated paramilitary conglomerate, facilitates the Xinjiang’s coercive labour transfer programmes and operates many of the region’s so-called ‘vocational training’ centres – where experts believe at least one million Uyghurs have been detained and subjected to abuses including, forced labour, torture and sexual abuse,” the IPAC release said.
HSBC has previously come under fire from members of IPAC for its role in freezing the assets of former Hong Kong opposition legislator Ted Hui in December 2020.
The events led to HSBC being called before the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, where it was accused of abetting the Hong Kong government’s crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement. (ANI)
European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said China was blocking Lithuanian imports and imports from other EU states, if they have components coming from Lithuania….reports Asian Lite News
The EU has accused China of “illegal” trade practises as it launched an official dispute on behalf of one of its smallest member states, BBC reported.
The row was sparked when Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a de facto embassy there, angering Beijing which sees Taiwan as part of its territory.
China downgraded its diplomatic relations with Lithuania, but denies ordering a boycott of Lithuanian goods, the report said.
The EU has now taken the case to the World Trade Organisation.
European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said China was blocking Lithuanian imports and imports from other EU states, if they have components coming from Lithuania.
Dombrovskis told the BBC that the EU would still try to find an “amicable solution” in parallel with pursuing the WTO case.
But experts say the WTO case could easily become bogged down.
“It will probably take years to litigate,” said Noah Barkin, a Visiting Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, the report said.
Valdis Dombrovskis said: “The EU is respecting the One-China policy and our assessment is that steps taken by Lithuania do not step out of the One-China policy framework.”
Beijing has denied ordering a trade boycott but the European Commission says it has evidence that China is refusing to clear Lithuanian goods through customs, rejecting import applications and pressuring EU companies to remove Lithuanian inputs from their supply chains, BBC reported.
At the WTO in 2019, Australia, Brazil, and Guatemala alleged that domestic support provided by India to sugarcane producers is in excess of the limit allowed by the WTO…reports Asian Lite News
Terming them “completely unacceptable”, India on Tuesday said, there would be no impact of World Trade Organisation (WTO) Panel’s findings on any of the country’s existing and ongoing policy measures in the sugar sector.
“India has initiated all measures necessary to protect its interest and (decided to) file an appeal at the WTO against the report, to protect the interests of its farmers,” a statement from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said.
At the WTO in 2019, Australia, Brazil, and Guatemala had challenged some of India’s policy measures in the sugar sector. “They had wrongly claimed that domestic support provided by India to sugarcane producers is in excess of the limit allowed by the WTO and that India provides prohibited export subsidies to sugar mills,” the release said.
“The Panel issued its report on December 14, in which it has made certain erroneous findings about our schemes to support sugarcane producers and exports,” it said.
Stating that the findings of the Panel are “completely unacceptable to India”, the statement said: “The Panel’s findings are unreasoned and not supported by the WTO rules. The Panel has also evaded key issues which it was obliged to determine. Similarly, the Panel’s findings on alleged export subsidies undermines logic and rationale.”
India believes that its measures are consistent with its obligations under the WTO agreements, the statement added.
The US was far from alone in complaining about China’s failure to live up to its obligations under the WTO….reports Asian Lite News
The US and a number of its closest allies have used a periodic review of Chinas trade policy by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to vent their anger at Beijings unwillingness to conform with rules meant to establish a level playing field for all participants in the global exchange of goods and services, VOA reported.
The regularly scheduled Trade Policy Review, which allows China’s trading partners to make official statements about policies to which they object, came last week as China marks 20 years of membership in the WTO, a group that works to establish rules for trade among its 164 member countries.
“When China acceded to the WTO 20 years ago, WTO members expected that the terms set forth in China’s Protocol of Accession would permanently dismantle existing Chinese policies and practices that were incompatible with an international trading system expressly based on open, market-oriented policies,” said David Bisbee, who is serving as the charge d’affaires ad interim of the US Mission to the WTO in Geneva, the report said.
“But those expectations have not been realized, and it appears that China has no inclination to change,” he continued in prepared remarks.
“Instead, China has used the imprimatur of WTO membership to become the WTO’s largest trader, while doubling down on its state-led, non-market approach to trade, to the detriment of workers and businesses in the United States and other countries.”
The US was far from alone in complaining about China’s failure to live up to its obligations under the WTO.
Representatives from various governments around the globe catalogued a long list of ways in which they said China bends or breaks the rules, the report said.
Among other things, they said that China distorts markets by subsidizing state-owned firms, ignoring intellectual property rights, limiting foreign firms’ access to its markets, using forced labor in some manufacturing and agricultural sectors, coercing smaller governments to accept unfair trade practices, and more, the report added.
Stress need to restore the normal functioning of all WTO’s functions as highlighted in the Joint Statement by BRICS Trade Ministers on Multilateral Trading System and the WTO Reform of 2020, reports Asian Lite News
BRICS Foreign Ministers, during their standalone meeting, held in a virtual format reaffirmed their support for a transparent, rules-based, open, inclusive and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core.
They reiterated their support for the necessary and urgent reform which would inter alia, preserve the centrality, core values and fundamental principles of the WTO and consider the interests of all members, including developing countries and LDCs, recognizing that the majority of the WTO members are developing countries.
It is critical that all WTO members avoid unilateral and protectionist measures that run counter to the spirit and rules of the WTO, BRICS Foreign Ministers said in their joint statement.
They stressed the need to restore the normal functioning of all WTO’s functions as highlighted in the Joint Statement by BRICS Trade Ministers on Multilateral Trading System and the WTO Reform of 2020.
They emphasized the primary importance of ensuring the restoration and preservation of the normal functioning of a two-stage WTO Dispute Settlement system, including the expeditious appointment of all Appellate Body members.
The Ministers acknowledged that global economic governance in an increasingly interconnected world is of critical importance for the success of national efforts for achieving sustainable development in all countries, and that, while efforts have been made over the years, there remains a need to continue improving global economic governance and to strengthen the role of the United Nations in this regard with extensive consultations and joint contributions for the shared benefits.
The Ministers reiterated the important role of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in the integrated treatment of trade and development, finance, technology, investment and sustainable development and reaffirmed support for its vital mandate and promotion of an open and inclusive global economy and provision of development oriented policy analysis.
On international financial architecture, the Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to broadening and strengthening the participation of emerging markets and developing countries (EMDCs) in the international economic decision-making and norm-setting processes, especially in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
To that end, they stressed the importance of continuing efforts to reform the international financial architecture, noting that enhancing the voice and participation of EMDCs, including the least developed countries, in the Bretton Woods institutions remains a continuous concern.
The Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to a strong Global Financial Safety Net with a quota-based and adequately resourced IMF at its center and expressed their deep disappointment at the failure in addressing the quota and governance reforms under the 15th General Review of Quotas (GRQ).
They called for the timely and successful completion of the 16th GRQ by December 15, 2023, to reduce the IMF’s reliance on temporary resources and to address under-representation of EMDCs for their meaningful engagement in the governance of IMF and to protect the voice and quota shares of its poorest and smallest members and have a new quota formula that better reflects the economic weight of members.
The Ministers called for governance reform in the recruitment processes of the World Bank and the IMF by ensuring selection through an open and merit- based process, noting that the true potential of the Bank and Fund would be realized only by building more democratic governance structures and strengthening their financial capacity.
Fresh push on UNSC reform
In their joint statement, Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa on Tuesday recommitted to instill new life in the discussions on reform of the UN Security Council and continue the work to revitalize the General Assembly and strengthen the Economic and Social Council.
They took note with satisfaction of the 2020 review of the peace building architecture and agreed to reinforce their coordination in the peace building commission.
The Ministers recalled the 2005 World Summit Outcome document and reaffirmed the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council, with a view to making it more representative, effective and efficient, and to increase the representation of the developing countries so that it can adequately respond to global challenges.
China and Russia reiterated the importance they attach to the status and role of Brazil, India and South Africa in international affairs and supported their aspiration to play a greater role in the UN.
They also commended India and South Africa for their respective present and recent terms served in the UN Security Council. They also recognized the candidacy of Brazil as a UN Security Council member for the 2022-2023 biennium.
