WTO fails on dispute reforms before Trump takes office, US ambassador says
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Ms Maria Pagan, US ambassador to the WTO, says she has had no contact with the Trump transition team.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON – World Trade Organisation (WTO) members failed to agree on reforms to revive a broken trade dispute settlement system during the last General Council meeting before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, outgoing US WTO ambassador Maria Pagan said on Dec 18.
Ms Pagan told reporters in a briefing that the meeting on Dec 16 and 17 in Geneva also failed to produce fisheries agreements on excess fishing capacity and overfishing.
The WTO has been trying for years to fix its dispute settlement system, which was rendered inoperative in 2019 after the US blocked the organisation’s appellate body judge appointments over what it saw as judicial overreach in trade disputes. The talks, revived earlier in 2024, had aimed to replace and reform the appellate body.
Ms Pagan, who led WTO negotiations for the US Trade Representative’s Office (USTR) during the Biden administration, said there was some progress in the talks, but members remained divided on the key issue of “what kind of appeal is necessary and appropriate”.
Through three US administrations, starting with Mr Barack Obama’s, Washington has accused the WTO Appellate Body of overstepping its boundaries, making new trade rules in its decisions that were not negotiated by the WTO’s 166 member economies.
“I do think that some members were still just hoping that we would just change our minds, which, you know, we have not,” Ms Pagan said.
She said the US was willing to explore many good ideas, but would still push for what it believes in.
“I do hope that people take it seriously,” she added. “If they want us to be part of the system, then, you know, take us seriously.”
No Trump contact
Ms Pagan, a long-time career lawyer at the USTR and the Commerce Department, said that she has had no contact with the Trump transition team and declined to comment when asked whether she had advice for Trump’s nominee to lead USTR, Mr Jamieson Greer.
Mr Greer served as USTR chief of staff during Trump’s first term and helped to impose steep tariffs on US$370 billion (S$503.9 billion) worth of Chinese goods and global steel and aluminium imports in 2018 and 2019.
Mr Jamieson Greer – US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be US Trade Representative – helped to impose steep tariffs on Chinese goods during Trump’s first term.
PHOTO: AFP
WTO dispute panels found that the China tariffs and the metals tariffs broke WTO trade rules, but the rulings have had no consequence because of the broken appellate function. A WTO panel also ruled in 2023 against China’s retaliatory tariffs on imports from the US.
Trump, who takes office on Jan 20, has vowed to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on Chinese goods
The next WTO General Council meeting is scheduled for Feb 18 to 19.
Ms Pagan said, however, that the WTO's facilitator for dispute settlement negotiations, Ambassador Usha Dwarka-Canabady of Mauritius, has left the post, leaving the need to find a successor before talks can move forward. REUTERS
