Regarding Japan's policy response under the suspension of the functions of the WTOAppellate 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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