World Trade Organization

WTO Starts Negotiations on Liberalising Services

GENEVA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - World Trade Organisation delegates began negotiations on Friday to try to draw up a framework for liberalising trade in services.

U.S. Firms Cleared to Ship Meat to China Under Bilateral Agreement, Barshefsky Says

U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said Feb. 23 that the Chinese government has now approved exports of U.S. meat to China under the bilateral agricultural agreement signed between the two countries last spring.

Barshefsky Says White House Committed To Pass Permanent NTR, Despite Setbacks

White House efforts to obtain permanent normal trade relations status for China went into overdrive Feb. 23 as new obstacles to that goal continued to arise. U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky told the Senate Finance Committee that the Clinton administration is prepared to do everything in its power to build support for granting permanent NTR.

Tax Breaks Aren""t Subsidies

The Wall Street Journal By Keith Marsden, an economist based in Geneva. The World Trade Organization badly needs to refurbish its image after last year's debacle in Seattle, and to demonstrate its continuing relevance as an independent arbitrator of rules that promote global trade, free markets and open competition. Stamping out tax breaks is not a good place to start.

Officials See Little Progress In WTO Agriculture Talks This Year

GENEVA--Members of the World Trade Organization are unlikely to engage in any substantial negotiations on the further liberalization of agriculture trade during 2000, according to farm trade officials contacted by BNA.

WTO Says U.S. Tax Law Skirts Global Rules

WTO Says U.S. Tax Law Skirts Global Rules Trade: Group sides with European Union, saying provision illegally subsidizes multinationals. Billions of dollars are at stake. By JONATHAN PETERSON, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

WTO rejects U.S. appeal on trade tax breaks

WTO rejects U.S. appeal on trade tax breaks By Curt Anderson Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- Billions of dollars in tax breaks for U.S. exports have been ruled an illegal subsidy by the World Trade Organization, but the issue is far from settled.

WTO Protesters Eye the Capital

By REBECCA SINDERBRAND Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Many of the same activists who protested World Trade Organization talks in Seattle last year have picked a new venue for mass demonstrations - this time, within shouting distance of the White House.

WTO ruling on US export subsidies favours the European Union

Today, the WTO Appellate Body confirmed that US subsidies to exports (via the Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) scheme) breach WTO rules. FSC subsidies assist US exports worth around $250 billion, giving US companies an unfair advantage and creating major distortions of international trade. The US budgetary cost of the subsidy is around $3.5 billion each year.

WTO Upholds Ruling Striking Down U.S. Foreign Sales Corporation Scheme

Bureau of National Affairs The World Trade Organization will issue an appeal decision Feb. 24 upholding an earlier dispute panel ruling that concluded tax breaks offered to U.S. foreign sales corporations (FSCs) constitute an illegal export subsidy under multilateral trading rules, BNA has learned.