WTO Establishes Panel to Consider China Rare Earths Export Restraints, Etc.

The World Trade Organization established a dispute settlement panel at the request of the U.S., Japan and the European Union to consider China’s export restraints on rare earths, tungsten and molybdenum at a July 23 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body. China had blocked an earlier U.S.-Japan-EU panel request at the July 10 meeting. In requesting the panel, the U.S. said the export restraints at issue include export quotas, export duties, various restrictions on the right to export and administrative requirements that limit China’s exports of these materials by increasing the burden and costs for exporting. Also at the meeting, India requested for the first time the establishment of a panel to consider countervailing measures applied by the U.S. on certain hot-rolled carbon steel products from India.