Some developments of the 3rd meeting of the Trade Defense Committee in October 2024 at the WTO

From 28 to 31 October 2024, the three Trade Remedies Committees of the World Trade Organization (WTO), including the Committee on Safeguards, the Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, and the Committee on Anti-Dumping Enforcement, met and adopted the 2024 annual report to be submitted to the Council for Trade in Goods.

1. At the meeting of the Committee on Safeguards, the Committee reviewed safeguard notifications submitted by 11 members (relating to 24 products). The Committee also reviewed notifications on regulations and safeguard measures of a number of members, including: EU (1 case); India (1 case); Indonesia (8 cases); Madagascar (3 cases); Philippines (1 case); Turkey (4 cases); UK (1 case); US (2 cases).... Six members spoke out regarding the EU's update on safeguard measures for certain steel products. One member referred to the proposal to suspend substantially equivalent concessions on EU imports. Five members commented on the latest status of the UK safeguard measure on certain steel products.

In relation to the Indonesian measure on carpets and other floor coverings, Turkey proposed to suspend substantially equivalent concessions or other obligations on imports from Indonesia. Several members expressed views, including on the relevant time limit used for the purpose of determining the value of substantially equivalent concessions.

In addition, an informal discussion group on safeguard procedures was held to provide a broader perspective than formal Committee meetings and to focus more on sharing experiences. In addition, the Chair provided an update on the WTO Secretariat's ongoing development of an online portal for Members to submit safeguard notifications, which is now ready for testing.

2. At the meeting of the Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, the Committee stressed the critical importance of transparency for the effective operation of the Agreement. The Chair expressed concern about the low compliance rate of WTO members with the subsidy notification obligation and called on members to submit notifications in a timely manner. Accordingly, 84 Members have not yet notified their 2023 programmes, and 82 Members have not yet notified their 2021 programmes. The WTO Secretariat has also launched a technical assistance project on subsidy notification. The first round of the project, which was completed in 2023, invited 43 members to participate, of which 23 agreed to participate. Of these, 11 members subsequently submitted their 2023 subsidy notifications, representing 13% of the total notifications received for that cycle. The next round of the project will be launched in late 2024. Based on the comments of some Members, the Chair also proposed that the Secretariat organize a training session on the obligation to notify subsidies, which is expected to take place in early 2025. The Committee reviewed new and full subsidy notifications in 2023, continued to review notifications in 2023, 2019; reviewed the first half of 2024 reports and notifications of preliminary and final measures of some Members.

In addition, the Committee continued to discuss some notable contents such as: China's request on the issue of discriminatory policies and subsidies of the United States; Korea's request on the French electric vehicle subsidy program; Australia, Canada, the EU, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States' requests related to subsidies and capacity issues. The Committee also discussed a new content requested by the United States on WTO Secretariat-initiated activities related to subsidies, and called for greater transparency and consultation between the Secretariat and members. Australia, the EU, India and the United Kingdom also supported the US comments. The Secretariat announced that it is finalizing a transparency portal that will allow members to access information on Secretariat-initiated activities and expects to have it up and running by the end of November 2024.

3. At the Anti-Dumping Enforcement Committee meeting, the Committee reviewed notifications from members of new, revised or previously reviewed anti-dumping laws and regulations, as well as reports of anti-dumping cases. The Committee reviewed notifications of new laws submitted by Brazil and the United States, and continued to review notifications from the European Union and a number of other members. The Delegations also raised questions and discussed the cases reported in the H1 2024 reports submitted by Brazil, China, the EU, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the US. For the H1 2024 reports, 45 Members reported new anti-dumping actions, 15 Members reported no new actions during the same period. In addition, 51 Members submitted one-time notifications that no investigation authorities had been established and no investigations had been initiated.

In addition, the Committee reviewed the preliminary and final anti-dumping decisions in the first 6 months of 2024 of a number of Members such as Argentina; Australia; Brazil; Canada; Chile; China; the EU; India; Israel;