Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 11/26/18


The World Trade Organization has agreed to establish dispute settlement panels to hear a series of disagreements over duties imposed on meat imports, among other products, by several of the United States’ major trading partners in retaliation for steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by the U.S.

The WTO on Friday announced it would establish panels for about a dozen disputes with China, the EU, Mexico, Canada, Russia and individual European Union countries over claims and counter-claims of violations of intellectual property rights, tariffs on steel and aluminum products, and retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports, including meat.

The panels are the latest development in these disputes, kicked off late last spring by the Trump Administration seeking better trade deals internationally. The U.S. and its trading partners began asking the WTO to arbitrate the relationships almost immediately. The WTO moves with all deliberate speed on these matters, and an agency-brokered solution or ruling would not be expected for years, perhaps.

The next step would be for the WTO to announce the composition of the panels.