Trade Compliance Blog » WTO

Banana Tariff Deal Expected Soon in WTO

Lauren — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:10:29 +0000

The WTO expects to close a long-running dispute over banana tariffs in the next two weeks, according to ICTSD.

The EU and Latin American counties have faced off for years over the EU import regime, which includes a €176 per tonne tariff on bananas from most-favoured nation (MFN) suppliers, alongside a 775,000 tonne duty-free import quota reserved for African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) states, many of which are former European colonies.

ICTSD says that:

Photo by Knut Burmeister

“The agreement now on the table would mandate that bananas receive ’stand-alone’ treatment and be excluded from the Tropical Products list — a list of products that will receive the ‘fullest liberalsation,’ settle all pending disputes with Latin American exporters, and provide a ‘credit clause’ to mark the lowered MFN tariff as the EU’s final market access commitment in the Doha Round.”

Read more about the banana deal at “Banana Deal Expected Next Week with Promise of Aid for ACP.”

Keep your banana imports compliant with all tariffs and duties with an import compliance solution.

Update: WTO Rules against Chinese Import Restrictions on Foreign Media

Lauren — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:57:08 +0000

Trade Compliance update: China has appealed the WTO ruling siding with the US complaint that Chinese restrictions on importing and distributing foreign books, music, and movies violates WTO regulations.

The World Trade Organization announced the appeal in a statement to its members. Chinese officials said it was filed Tuesday, but documents were not immediately made public.

A ruling on the appeal is expected early next year.

Read the previous post: “WTO Rules against Chinese Import Restrictions on Foreign Media”

Read the Associated Press article announcing the appeal: “China appeals US win in WTO music, films dispute“

Drama at the WTO

Lauren — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:54:30 +0000

China and the US are airing their issues at the WTO the last day or two. Yesterday, the US and EU jointly filed a complaint that China violates international trade laws by curbing exports of certain raw materials such as antimony, bauxite, indium, yellow phosphorous, magnesium carbonate, and rare earths.

(So that’s why magnesium carbonate has been so expensive lately!)

China defended its position on the raw materials, saying they are compliant with WTO regulations and the rules are in place to limit pollution, over expansion of the industry, and to stabilize the world market.

To top it all off, China is also complaining that the US-based search engine Google is contributing to obscene content, violating China’s laws, after the US voiced concern over China’s “green dam” – a filter to prevent “illegal images”.

“Critics have said the program, sold by Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co, is technically flawed and could be used to spy on users and block sites Beijing considers politically offensive.

The proposed new rules raised fundamental questions regarding the transparency of China’s regulatory practices and concerns about compliance with WTO rules, the U.S. officials said.”

The Economist has a good article about duties & exports in relation to this ongoing dispute too: Friction in World Trade: Duties Call.