The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments on the complaint that Hong Kong has raised at the World Trade Organization by April 12. The territory of Hong Kong has said that the U.S. is breaking WTO rules by requiring that exporters mark goods from Hong Kong as Made in China, rather than Made in Hong Kong. The U.S. issued an executive order last year making the change because of China's political crackdown against Hong Kong. The marking rule does not affect tariff treatment (see 2008130028).
CBP issued a notice in the March 10 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 55, No. 9) regarding the dates and draft agenda for the 67th Session of the World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System Committee (HSC), which will meet virtually March 31-April 9. Among other things, the HSC issues classification decisions on the interpretation of the Harmonized System (HS) in the form of published tariff classification opinions or amendments to the Explanatory Notes. It also considers amendments to the legal text of the HS.
An Asia expert said that just as China's Made in China 2025 national strategic plan on manufacturing was a wake-up call for American policymakers, it did the same for Germany and German industries. “We are not so different from where the U.S. was the last four years,” Gudrun Wacker said during a joint webinar March 4 with the Hudson Institute and her think tank, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was officially confirmed as the next director-general of the World Trade Organization on Feb. 15, and the U.S. charge d'affaires, David Bisbee, in Geneva said she has deep knowledge and experience in “economics, trade, and diplomacy.” He said, “Dr. Okonjo-Iweala has promised that under her leadership it will not be business as usual for the WTO, and we are excited and confident that she has the skills necessary to make good on this promise.” Myron Brilliant, vice president for international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in congratulating Okonjo-Iweala, said that “we need to restore the WTO as a forum for meaningful trade negotiations and the settlement of commercial disputes. We’re committed to doing our part to make that happen.”
While the World Trade Organization faces multiple crises, including COVID-19 vaccine export control threats and massive trade wars, the institution's Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff delivered a 10-item agenda for moving forward. Speaking Feb. 9 at a Washington International Trade Association conference, Wolff said the WTO will be judged by “how well it deals with the crises of our time,” saying it must “demonstrate soon and visibly that it can deliver on subjects relevant to all those who engage in international trade or are affected by it ... pretty much everyone.”
The World Trade Organization's General Council will meet Feb. 15 to vote on the appointment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to be the new director-general. The withdrawal of the other finalist and the U.S. announcement that it supports her candidacy cleared the way for the vote.
Ambassadors from the United Kingdom, Brazil, the European Union and Australia discussed on a Feb. 8 panel how to improve trading relationships with the U.S. and deal with the challenge China poses to the international trading system but had no insights into how to make breakthroughs on either.
The panels tasked with deciding whether Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports truly meet the national security exemption at the World Trade Organization notified WTO ambassadors that those decisions will be released no sooner than “the second half of 2021” because of delays caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Multiple panels are considering the tariffs against various countries and the European Union. Although the panels were assigned the cases a year ago, with decisions to be made in six months or less, all the panels told Geneva officials Feb. 8 that their decisions will be released in July at the earliest.
South Korea Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee dropped her candidacy for World Trade Organization director-general, clearing a path for Nigeria's Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to be elected. Announcing her decision at a Feb. 5 briefing in Seoul, Yoo said it was made in coordination with the U.S. as a way to reach a consensus among WTO members on the one candidate who will lead the organization, according to a report in The Korea Herald.
Speakers for Navigating the New Normal, a keynote panel at a trade symposium convened by The Economist Feb. 2, discussed whether the political pressure to bring supply chains closer to home will overcome the fact that Vietnam's and China's economies weathered the pandemic better than Europe, with no conclusion, but also talked about what the future of the “special relationship” between the U.S. and the United Kingdom will be in trade.