Regarding Japan's policy response under the suspension of the functions of the WTO Appellate Body

July 21, 2022
Yoshihisa KITANO
Chairman
The Japan Iron and Steel Federation

Takahiro FUJIOKA
Chairman
Special Steel Association of Japan

Hisashi KUBOTA
Chairman
Japan Stainless Steel Association

 

The Sub-Committee on Unfair Trade Policies and Measures of the Trade Committee under the Industrial Structure Council in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, has recently reported and published the Interim Report of the Special Task Force on Policy Response Measures under the Suspension of the Function of the WTO Appellate Body. The steel industry supports its contents and strongly hopes that the recommendations set forth in the report will be realized quickly.

The Japanese steel industry recognizes that in order to maintain and develop a free, fair and multilateral trading system, it is extremely important that unfair trade measures that are not consistent with WTO rules be resolved based on the internationally agreed rules of the WTO Dispute Settlement (DS) procedure. From this standpoint, we have requested the Japanese Government to ensure that unfair trade remedy measures initiated against Japanese steel products by major trading partners are resolved under the DS procedures set out in the WTO Agreement.

The report recommends participation in the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA) and consideration of countermeasures against so-called “appeal into the void”, as a means of interim and alternative supplement to the functions of the WTO Appellate Body, which has currently practically ceased to function. Since the steel industry has the case which WTO panel examination on China's anti-dumping measures against Japanese stainless steel products is currently underway, we hope that the Japanese Government will consider participation in the MPIA with a sense of speed, in particular.

 

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