Australia will become the newest member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) plurilateral Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). On October 17, 2018, parties to the GPA unanimously approved a decision to welcome Australia as the 48th WTO member to be covered by the GPA.
The GPA is a plurilateral agreement that strives to ensure open, fair
On August 29, 2018, the United States circulated a request for consultations to the World Trade Organization (WTO) members. The US has requested that the WTO help resolve a dispute between the US and Russia concerning additional duties imposed by Russia on certain US goods.
A request for consultations is similar to other forms of
On Monday, July 30, 2018, the World Trade Organization (WTO) released new resources regarding trends in global trade. The resources issued by the WTO are the latest editions of the annual publications of World Trade Statistical Review, Trade Profiles and World Tariff Profiles.
World Trade Statistical Review provides an in-depth analysis of trends in global
The Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) marked its first anniversary last week. The TFA entered into force on February 22, 2017 when the World Trade Organization (WTO) obtained the required two-thirds acceptance from its members.
The WTO members are continuing to work towards fully implementing the TFA. Implementation of the TFA is expected to have positive
Some of the most important trade partners of the U.S. are raising concerns about the proposed U.S. plan to overhaul its tax code. The finance ministers of Europe’s five largest economies voiced concerns about the tax plan in a letter sent to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday, December 11, 2017.
The letter was signed
February 22, 2017 marked a major milestone for global trade. The Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) entered into force on February 22nd after the World Trade Organization (WTO) obtained the needed acceptance from two-thirds of its 164 members. Rwanda, Oman, Chad and Jordan submitted their instruments of acceptance to WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo, which brought the
In the past two days, two more countries – Peru and Saudi Arabia – ratified the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Their ratification followed Mexico and Hondurus, who ratified the TFA earlier this month.
The submission of instruments of acceptance from Peru and Saudi Arabia means that more than 80 percent of the
As U.S. sanctions on Cuba continue to thaw, some long standing disputes have been reignited. Perhaps chief among them is the decades-old battle over the trademark for “Havana Club” rum.
The original distillery that produced Havana Club rum was expropriated by the Castro regime in the 1960s. After the original distiller’s trademark registration had
On November 17, 2015, Panama became the 52nd WTO member country to ratify the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). The United States has already accepted the TFA. The TFA will enter into force when two-thirds of the WTO’s 161 members have formally accepted the TFA, completed their domestic legal procedures,
The World Trade Organization (WTO) released new editions of its key statistical publications for 2015: International Trade Statistics, Trade Profiles, World Tariff Profiles and Services Profiles.
These publications provide data on world trade, including trends in world trade, trade policy measures, average tariffs imposed by individual economies, basic economic indicators, and key statistics on infrastructure