The EU requested two World Trade Organization dispute settlement panels over trade disputes with China, the European Commission announced. One dispute concerns Chinese trade restrictions on Lithuanian exports and EU exports with Lithuanian content. The other deals with the legality of Beijing restricting EU high-tech patent holders from accessing EU courts. The WTO action comes after bilateral talks over the issues fell through, EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said.

Trade restrictions are becoming more commonplace in the wake of the economic uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine and food security crisis, the World Trade Organization director-general said in an annual overview of international trading environment developments. The WTO Trade Monitoring Report said the restrictions are coming at a higher clip, especially for food, feed and fertilizers. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called on members to refrain from further adoption of export restrictions in an effort to salvage the global economic outlook.

A World Trade Organization dispute panel found that Indonesia's ban on the export of nickel ore violates global trade rules, circulating its decision on Nov. 30. Indonesia's president said the country will appeal the ruling, reported JakartaGlobe, an Indonesian news outlet.

World Trade Organization members addressed a "record number of trade concerns" during a Nov. 24-25 meeting of the Council for Trade in Goods, the WTO said. Topics included how the council could implement some of the outcomes of the 12th Ministerial Conference: the work program on electronic commerce, the WTO's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and WTO reform. The committee also wanted to continue talks on the Least-Developed Countries Group's proposal for some countries to graduate from LDC status. The next council meeting is April 3-4.

World Trade Organization members during a Nov. 21-22 meeting of the Committee on Agriculture agreed to set up a new work program to tackle food security concerns of least-developed countries and net food-importing developing countries, the WTO announced. The decision effectuates a mandate in the 12th Ministerial Conference's Ministerial Declaration on the Emergency Response to Food Insecurity. Committee Chair Marcel Vernooij was appointed coordinator to facilitate the discussions under the initiative, the WTO said. Members also deferred until the next committee meeting in March the decision on the first triennial review of the operation of the Bali Tariff Rate Quota Decision.

The U.S. again blocked a proposal to start the selection process to fill seats on the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body, according to a Geneva-based trade official. Striking down the proposal at the Dispute Settlement Body's Nov. 28 meeting, the U.S. said it does not support filling the body's seats, insisting the first step to WTO revisions should be efforts to better understand the concerns of WTO members, the trade official said.

World Trade Organization members began talks Nov. 18 on a range of e-commerce issues under its e-commerce work program, including on the best "way forward" for the e-commerce duty moratorium agreed to during the WTO's 12th Ministerial Conference in June (see 2206170010). Ambassador Usha Dwarka-Canabady, facilitator for the e-commerce work program, said there's a "sense of engagement from all members" on the moratorium and other e-commerce issues.

Correction: The World Trade Organization published the agenda for the Nov. 28 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body (see 2211180037).

Ministers of the Pacific Islands Forum called on World Trade Organization members to ratify and implement the agreement on fisheries subsidies (see 2209300018) "as soon as possible," according to a joint statement. The statement was issued the same day as a meeting between the WTO and the Pacific Islands Forum in which the two sides agreed to continue cooperating on fisheries subsidies and "other key issues," the WTO announced. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that the Pacific countries' voice "was heard loud and clear" at the U.N. COP27 Climate Change Conference and that future WTO work can help "deliver on the Pacific's priorities."

The World Trade Organization published the agenda for the Nov. 28 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body. It includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of recommendations adopted by the DSB on antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. A status report also is expected from Indonesia on measures related to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products, and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products.