Crapo, Brady Tell USTR Tai Their WTO Priorities

The top Republicans on the Senate Finance and the House Ways and Means committees asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to "start a concrete conversation about which reforms" would address the U.S. concerns about the World Trade Organization's appellate body, so that binding dispute reform can return to Geneva. They also said that the Nov. 30-Dec. 3 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) could be an opportunity to end the paralysis at the WTO.

"We both strongly support the World Trade Organization (WTO). But the WTO is at a cross-roads. Negotiations for agreements drag on interminably. Enforcement remains frustrated as the impasse over the WTO Appellate Body continues. Moreover, this stagnation takes place at a time when the need for action at the WTO has never been more compelling; the world trading system confronts a host of challenges that the United States could not have foreseen when it helped establish the organization," wrote Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, in a letter sent Nov. 24, six days before the meeting begins.

The legislators said a high-standard fisheries agreement concluded during the meeting would show that the WTO can still negotiate. However, they wrote, underlining it for emphasis, "We should not accept an agreement at any cost, including one that allows countries to inappropriately claim special and differential treatment or allows for unreasonable stand-still periods."

They asked Tai to push for a permanent ban on tariffs on electronic transmissions. They also asked her to build on the trilateral agreement on new disciplines for trade-distorting subsidies. "We must also foster ways to hold WTO Members to their notification obligations for subsidies. What we should not do is distract from this focus by joining the proposed Fossil Fuels Subsidies Ministerial Statement," they wrote, underlining the second sentence for emphasis.

Crapo and Brady also oppose the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights waiver on COVID-19 goods, saying it undermines pharmaceutical innovation. The administration has said it supports waiving IP rights for COVID-19 vaccines.