General Council

A joint proposal on transparency issued by the United States, European Union, Japan, Argentina and Costa Rica would strip members of the World Trade Organization of their rights in the body if they fail to live up to the notification commitments prescribed in the WTO agreements.

The Chinese ambassador to the World Trade Organization excoriated the U.S. report on “China’s Trade Disruptive Model” in a fiery exchange at the WTO’s General Council meeting last week.

The U.S. and Chinese ambassadors to the World Trade Organization on Tuesday traded blows during a heated General Council exchange on the United States' Section 301 investigation into Chinese intellectual property and technology transfer practices.

India halted a May 10 meeting of the World Trade Organization's General Council by refusing to agree to the proposed agenda because it included an item on “trade and investment facilitation,” which India claims is outside of the scope of the WTO, according to Geneva sources.

The General Council of the World Trade Organization has agreed on the chairpersons of all the bodies reporting to it for this year, including the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), but the standing committees of the WTO reporting to the trade in goods and services councils are still in the process of appointing their chairs.