The World Trade Organization's Informal Working Group on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises launched its Trade4MSMEs platform Dec. 2 in a bid to help small companies find "trade-related information that improves their ability to trade internationally," the WTO said. The platform includes guides that give trading firms the key information needed before exporting or importing goods or services, and also provides a list of all the import and export forms needed in various markets, the WTO said. The new tool also will be useful for policymakers and government researchers, as it highlights the best practices and key issues for MSMEs, the WTO said.

Maria Pagan, the nominee to lead the U.S. mission at the World Trade Organization, told Senate Finance Committee members that reforming the appellate body is a top priority because "Appellate Body overreaching has shielded China’s non-market practices and hurt the interest of U.S. workers and businesses." She said that appellate body rulings "undermined our ability to protect U.S. workers and businesses from those non-market practices."

After postponing its 12th Ministerial Conference, which was set to start Nov. 30, due to new COVID-19 travel restrictions, the World Trade Organization is now aiming to hold the meeting in person during the first week of March. The WTO delayed the ministerial after Switzerland -- the intended site of the conference -- banned flights from many southern African nations, in response to new information about the Omicron variation of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 found in that region. In its Nov. 29 statement, the WTO emphasized the need for continued negotiations on key issues such as fisheries subsidies and the intellectual property waiver for any COVID-19 vaccines. Trade experts have speculated that the postponement of MC12 will likely mean a slowdown in negotiations on those topics (see 2111290035).

World Trade Organization members heard two requests for dispute panels at the Nov. 29 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body, the WTO said. The European Union sought a panel over Russian state-owned entities' procurement practices, and Costa Rica requested a panel over the Dominican Republic's antidumping duties on corrugated steel bars from Costa Rica.

After Switzerland banned flights from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, the World Trade Organization had to postpone the 12th Ministerial Conference that was due to start Nov. 30. A news release from Nov. 26 quoted Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala saying that the travel restrictions would have put delegations from Southern Africa at a disadvantage. "She pointed out that many delegations have long maintained that meeting virtually does not offer the kind of interaction necessary for holding complex negotiations on politically sensitive issues," the release said.

Turkmenistan officially submitted an application to join the World Trade Organization, the WTO said Nov. 24. The Central Asian country requested that the application be considered at the upcoming 12th Ministerial Conference, to be held Nov. 30-Dec. 3. Atageldi Haljanov, Turkmenistan's ambassador to the United Nations, after meeting with WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said that the decision was backed by his country's president and "driven by Turkmenistan's strong desire to integrate into world trade and diversify its economy through WTO accession." The country set up a commission in 2013 to study the effects of WTO membership. Turkmenistan would be the last former Soviet republic to join the WTO. The release said Turkmenistan's natural resources include oil and natural gas.

Gloria Abraham Peralta of Costa Rica, the chair of the World Trade Organization's agriculture negotiations, sent out a revised negotiation text ahead of the Nov. 30-Dec. 3 12th Ministerial Conference, the WTO said. The revised text was circulated as part of the chair's report to the WTO's General Council Nov. 23. The new document represents a "less ambitious version" of the negotiating outcomes, the chair said, but is intended to give members as much guidance as possible for MC12. “If members can continue to demonstrate commitment, goodwill and flexibility, a successful Ministerial Conference is within reach,” Peralta said. The revised text will be presented to all WTO members at the Nov. 25 meeting of the Committee on Agriculture in Special Session.

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.

The World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund launched a new database on the cross-border flow of COVID-19 vaccines. The COVID-19 Vaccine Trade Tracker provides data on "total vaccine supply to date, exports by producing economy and by supply arrangement type, imports by income group and by continent, supply by manufacturing economy and vaccine type, supply to continents and vaccination status," the WTO said Nov. 22.

Nonprofits, such as Amnesty International, Public Citizen, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam and Greenpeace, joined by the majority of House Democrats and 10 senators, are urging the Biden administration to push for an intellectual property waiver in the World Trade Organization for "COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests."