WTO rules on US chicken If you thought that the imposition of anti-dumping duties on chicken exports from the United States of America was confined to South Africa only, you would be gravely mistaken. It seems that in the People’s Republic of China (China) there’s a similar concern about US chicken entering their market. On 18 January the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) panel issued its compliance report in the dispute “China – Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duty Measures on Broiler Products from the United States – Recourse to Article 21.5 of the DSU by the United States”. The WTO concluded that China had acted inconsistently with certain provisions of the AntiDumping and Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) agreements. Accordingly, China’s trade remedy measures taken to comply with the DSB’s recommendations and rulings in the original dispute, at issue in this proceeding, are inconsistent with the relevant agreements. China therefore failed to comply with the recommendations and rulings of the DSB to bring its measures into conformity with its obligations under the Anti-Dumping and SCM agreements. To the extent that China failed to comply with the recommendations and rulings of the DSB, those recommendations and rulings remain operative. SADC and The Arms Trade Treaty On 19 January the Southern African Development Community (SADC) executive secretary met with the president of the Fourth Conference of States Parties (CSP4) to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and permanent representative of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament based in Geneva, Switzerland. The ATT has 93 states parties to date; 41 states are signatories but are yet to become states parties, while 59 states are yet to join the ATT. The meeting, held at SADC House in Gaborone, Botswana, served to brief the SADC executive secretary on the status of signing and ratification of the ATT amongst the global community in general and the SADC region in particular, to promote awareness about the treaty and to propagate its benefits to states parties. WTO 1st DirectorGeneral Peter Sutherland, the first director-general of the WTO, passed away in his home in Dublin on 7 January, aged 71. Sutherland took the helm of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1993 at a time when the outcome of the broad and complex Uruguay Round of global trade talks was very much in question. Under Sutherland’s leadership, the 123 signatories to the GATT reached agreement in 1993 and signed the Marrakesh Agreement concluding the Uruguay Round, which resulted in the creation of the WTO. The WTO presently has 164 members. National Pavilion List 2018/19 The dti will be participating in various exhibitions, trade shows and National Pavilions to promote locally manufactured products in international markets. For details go to www. thedti.gov.za/invitations/ national_pavilion2018-19. pdf
