The WTO Dispute Settlement System: "where international trade disputes are adjudicated effectively and efficiently"
Szymon Maziakowski & Marcus Sohlberg
The World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body (AB) has released its 2014 annual report highlighting its work and the disputes adjudicated in the previous year.
The AB stated that there is a growing demand for dispute settlement proceedings in the WTO and that its system remains the preferred and perhaps the only forum where international trade disputes are adjudicated effectively and efficiently. It has seen an upward trend in dispute activity, which it expects will continue for the next several years. The total number of active WTO disputes at the panel and appeal stages reached the highest level in history during 2014. Active disputes during 2014 concerned, for example, China's use of export quotas and duties on rare earth minerals, the United States' imposition of countervailing duties on carbon steel imports from India, and the European Union's regulation affecting sales of seal products.
Since its inception in 1995, nearly 500 requests for consultations have been submitted (which is a prerequisite for Members to initiate a dispute at the WTO) and the dispute settlement system has handled disputes spanning over US$1 trillion in trade flows.
A copy of the AB's Annual Report for 2014 can be found here.
Twelve Communities Receive Federal Manufacturing Partnership Designation
Lauren M. Donoghue
On July 10, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced twelve newly-designated "Manufacturing Communities" as part of the second round of the Administration-wide "Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership" (IMCP) competition. Each designated community will be eligible to receive funds from one of eleven federal agencies, which have access to more than $1 billion in economic development funds to build on the designees' plans to support local public-private partnerships that bolster regional manufacturing. Each community will be assigned a federal liaison and be promoted as a designated "Manufacturing Community" to help attract additional private investment and partnerships. The twelve new locations span the country and include communities in the Greater Pittsburgh region, Louisiana, Minnesota, Utah, the Pacific Northwest, Connecticut, and the Central Valley. The original 12 communities which received designation were announced by the Administration last May. Representatives of all designated IMCP regions are being invited to attend the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership Summit on October 21–22, 2015, in Washington, D.C.
