As the U.S. continues to paralyze the World Trade Organization’s system for appealing trade disputes, 17 members of the trade organization announced Friday they will collaborate on an alternative initiated by Canada and the European Union to resolve complaints that emerge between them in the meantime.
The announcement was made on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where ministers representing like-minded trading partners have been grappling with how to proceed as a group, unless and until Americans’ concerns about the need for WTO reform can be resolved.
“We believe that a functioning dispute settlement system of the WTO is of the utmost importance for a rules-based trading system, and that an independent and impartial appeal stage must continue to be one of its essential features,” said the joint statement released Friday by the group.
The WTO continues to try to resolve disputes at its committees, and panels are still struck to review complaints and report back when member countries are alleged to have broken the rules.
But as of December, the WTO’s appellate body no longer has enough members to hear new appeals.
For the last few years, the United States has refused to agree to the appointment of any new adjudicators until its concerns about the existing process are addressed. Without a consensus among its members on how to proceed, the trade organization is paralyzed.
Canada’s complaint and request for arbitration with the United States over softwood lumber duties is among the cases now stalled.
Canada and the European Union first announced an interim arrangement for resolving trade disputes with each other last July. Now fifteen more countries have climbed aboard. They are:
Australia.
Brazil.
China.
Chile.
Colombia.
Costa Rica.
Guatemala.
Republic of Korea.
Mexico.
New Zealand.
Norway.
Panama.
Singapore.
Switzerland.
Uruguay.
Many of these countries met in Davos this week as part of the WTO’s Cairns group: agricultural exporters who share the common cause of wanting to liberalize trade barriers.
But the most significant player in this new alternative scheme may be China.
Temporary solution
Many of the American concerns about the WTO centre on complaints about whether the terms of China’s membership in the WTO are fair. But China has a reasonable track record of complying with the final decisions of the WTO’s now-paralyzed dispute resolution process.
Neither China nor the U.S. was part of the Ottawa group, a collection of WTO members that also held a working dinner in Davos hosted by Canada’s trade minister, Mary Ng, to continue talks on WTO reform that began under Canada’s leadership in 2018.
The door was left open to China and anyone else joining the broader conversation around possible solutions at an appropriate time.
Friday’s agreement now sets these countries on a path to being able to resolve future disputes with China, a dominant player in international trade because of its massive market size, manufacturing capacity and corresponding economic influence.
European Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan emphasized that the parallel system initiated by Canada and the EU is only meant to be temporary, and the partners involved are still working towards WTO reform as a whole. (Virginia Mayo/Associated Press)
The statement characterizes this interim system as “contingency measures” to “allow for appeals amongst ourselves” when the findings of those panels are in dispute. It’s based on Article 25 of the WTO’s dispute settlement rules, which allow for multi-party interim arrangements.
The statement says it will be in place “only and until a reformed WTO Appellate Body becomes fully operational” and any other WTO members are welcome to join these already signing on.
‘Dramatic’ move on WTO reform coming: Trump
More work remains to determine exactly how the new appeals process will work and what arbitrators will hear its cases.
“We have also taken proper note of the recent engagement of President Trump on WTO reform,” the group’s joint statement said.
In his closing news conference before leaving Davos Wednesday, the American president told reporters that a delegation from the WTO’s directorate was visiting Washington next week or the week after, and portrayed these talks as a form of negotiation toward reform.
Because the organization isn’t top-down, but only proceeds based on negotiations between its members, it’s unclear any kind of deal could result, although it would allow the White House to communicate its concerns directly.
“We’re going to do something that I think will be very dramatic,” Trump said, without giving any indication what exactly he had in mind.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
