One of President Trump's top economic advisers has suggested there could be a case for evicting China from the World Trade Organization (WTO). In a BBC interview, Kevin Hassett chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers said China had misbehaved as a member of the WTO. He also claimed that the US had been failed by the organization.
The International Monetary Fund has warned that a no-deal Brexit on World Trade Organization terms would entail substantial costs for the UK economy. IMF said that all likely Brexit scenarios would entail costs, but a disorderly departure could lead to a significantly worse outcome.
Brazil has secured World Trade Organization backing to press its claims against Canada in a dispute over what it says are unfair subsidies for Bombardier Inc.’s CSeries jets, a preliminary WTO ruling published this week showed.
President Michel Temer said on Wednesday that Brazil will respond with caution to planned U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum to avoid hurting ties with its second-largest trade partner. But if talks fail, the president emphasized, Brazil will not hesitate to take a complaint to the World Trade Organization.
Uruguay has expressed an interest in actively participating in negotiations to liberalize trade in services in the framework of TISA, Trade in Services Agreement which recently held its seventh round of talks in Geneva.
Argentina has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against the European Union’s decision to impose anti-dumping duties on its biodiesel exports. The duties are “clearly protectionist” and will affect annual sales worth more than 1.5 billion, Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday on its website.
A week of trade talks in Brussels have taken the European Union and the United States a little closer to a deal to liberalize bilateral trade. EU officials say the trade relationship with the US is already the biggest in the world, worth more than 2bn Euros a day, but barriers remain, and removing them could make it even bigger. If it happens, the agreement would be huge, capable of changing the shape of global trade.
Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes vetoed the bill imposing a 10% tax on export of cereals and oilseeds in their natural state recently approved by a divided Congress, arguing it was “highly distortive and regressive”. The bill now returns to the legislative.
One of the main features emerging with the current international economic situation is mega-regional negotiations linking the main world production networks: Europe, North America and Asia and sometimes skirting WTO, according to the latest report on the Latinamerican and Caribbean economy from Eclac (UN Economic commission for Latam and the Caribbean).
WTO Director General Pascal Lamy warned that 2013 could turn out even weaker than expected, especially because of risks from the Euro crisis as countries might try to restrict trade further in a desperate attempt to shore up domestic growth.