The Hong Kong ambassador to the World Trade Organization told the U.S. ambassador there that Hong Kong is initiating a dispute, and wants formal bilateral consultations on the U.S. decision to require goods made in Hong Kong to be marked 'Made in China.'

The U.S. supports South Korea's Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee rather than the Nigerian candidate for director-general, even though the latter has more support, because the World Trade Organization “must be led with someone with real, hands-on experience in the field,” the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in an Oct. 28 statement, saying “the WTO is badly in need of major reform,” and that Yoo is a “bona fide trade expert.”

Although Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's candidate for director-general of the World Trade Organization, had more support from member countries, her rival, Korea's Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, was not withdrawn from the contest on Oct. 28, and there is no consensus on who the next woman to lead the organization will be. Retired trade attorney Terry Stewart blogged on the Washington International Trade Association website about why that might be and what's next. He said that given press reports, it looked like Okonjo-Iweala, who spent most of her career as an economist at the World Bank, had support from more than 100 of the WTO's 164 member countries. Discussions will continue with the U.S. and Korea to see if they will support Okonjo-Iweala, he said. The deadline for the consensus-based decision-making is Nov. 7. If no result is achieved, there can be a vote in Geneva, and the candidate with the most support can win without unanimity.

The World Trade Organization member countries cleared the way for the European Union to impose tariffs on $4 billion worth of U.S. exports because of past tax breaks for the Boeing Company. In the EU's Oct. 26 response to the development, Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis reiterated that the EU would prefer a settlement that drops tariffs on EU goods rather than imposing tariffs on U.S. exports. “The European Commission is preparing the countermeasures, in close consultation with our Member States. As I have made clear all along, our preferred outcome is a negotiated settlement with the U.S. To that end, we continue to engage intensively with our American counterparts, and I am in regular contact with U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer,” he said in the release.

One of the two finalists for the director-general position at the World Trade Organization said Oct. 20 that when trade ministers gather for the next ministerial -- which may happen in June next year -- they should agree on a process for reforming the dispute settlement system. That suggests there will be no binding dispute resolution for at least two years at the WTO, if not longer.

A former negotiator on the phase one China deal, Clete Willems, said his goal in publishing a report on how to reform the World Trade Organization is to move the conversation beyond how to restore the status quo in Geneva.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria and Yoo Myung-hee of the Republic of Korea are the two finalists for director-general at the World Trade Organization, the WTO announced Oct. 8. Both are women, so either would be the first woman to lead the organization. Okonjo-Iweala, a long-time development economist and former finance and foreign minister in Nigeria, has not been a trade negotiator (see 2007210040). Yoo is South Korea's trade minister, and was involved in the renegotiation of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement during the Trump administration.

The long-awaited World Trade Organization decision on how much in tariffs the European Union can use to retaliate for Boeing subsidies has been sent to the parties, Reuters is reporting, and that amount is $4 billion worth of goods. Reuters said the EU is unlikely to impose tariffs before the U.S. election in November.

Trade ministers from the G-20 nations said they will continue to support reform of the World Trade Organization and restoration of a functioning dispute settlement system, and that they recognize how important it is that any trade measures related to COVID-19 are “targeted, proportionate, transparent [and] temporary,” and don't create unnecessary disruption to global supply chains. The statement was released Sept. 22, at the end of a virtual G-20 summit.

Liam Fox, from the United Kingdom; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria; Yoo Myung-hee from Korea; Amina C. Mohamed from Kenya; and Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri from Saudi Arabia are the candidates still in the running for the director-general position at the World Trade Organization, after the first round of winnowing. The second round of winnowing will be done with member states from Sept. 24 to Oct. 6. The second round will narrow the list to two candidates. After this, the timeline for the third round, to select the one candidate by consensus, will be announced.