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The WTO Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures has extended the transition period for the elimination of export subsidy programs of 19 developing countries to the end of 2005. The subsidies agreement provides for an eight-year transition period for most developing countries to eliminate export subsidies. Under the "fast-track" procedures agreed to at the Doha Round of trade negotiations, the Subsidies Committee may grant annual extension to these countries until end 2007, "subject to annual review of transparency and standstill obligations." Affected are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Fiji, Grenada, Guatemala, Jamaica, Jordan, Mauritius, Panama, Papua New Guinea, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Uruguay...
 
The European Union has requested talks with Washington over antidumping duties that have hit a British steel firm. The move is the first step toward asking the World Trade Organization to issue a ruling on the US. The EU maintains that the US is "breaching the rules of global commerce through its tariffs of almost 126% on imports of stainless steel bars made by Firth Rixson Special Steels Ltd." Washington imposed the duties in March 2002, claiming the company was unfairly dumping cheap goods on the US market. The EU has countered saying that the tariffs violate international trade law because Washington decided the company - Firth Rixson Ltd. - was was dumping its steel without giving the British company sufficient opportunity to prove otherwise. US trade officials at the WTO headquarters in Geneva said they were reviewing the EU complaint and could not comment immediately…

World Trade Organization chief Supachai Panitchpakdi recently expressed confidence that the US will remain "committed to free trade" during the second term of President George Bush. Following his presentation at the BusinessWeek CEO Forum in Beijing, Supachai told gathered reporters that he is "upbeat on the US attitude towards global trade..having worked with the Bush administration before, the US has remained in the leading role in trade liberalization, in particular [at WTO headquarters] in Geneva." As an example of US commitment to free trade, he mentioned the decision by the president last December to scrap the controversial tariffs on imported steel products after the WTO ruled they violated international trade rules; and…

The US and Chinese governments have successfully resolved a number of key disputes hindering China's full integration into the global economy, but a number of hurdles remain for China to meet its responsibilities under the World Trade Organization, according to the US Council for International Business. In a letter to US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, USCIB President Thomas Niles welcomed the resolution of China's discriminatory value-added tax on semiconductors as well as the opening of China's distribution sector to foreign companies. " But, the letter said, China "still has a way to go" in numerous areas - including improving protection of intellectual property rights - "if it is to fully meet its WTO accession requirements." Broadening the reach of common trade rules, it said, "is advantageous to all WTO members, but especially to the United States as one of the world's largest exporters." The letter drew particular attention to "issues of concern in China's WTO compliance process in such areas as antidumping, audio-visual products and content, government procurement, insurance, intellectual property rights, postal services, telecommunications, and trading and distribution."

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