CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -EU requests two WTO panels against China: trade restrictions on Lithuania and high-tech patents. The EU has today requested the establishment of panels at the World Trade Organization for two of its ongoing trade disputes with China.

Detailed explanation-2: -The WTO has one of the most active international dispute settlement mechanisms in the world. Since 1995, 616 disputes have been brought to the WTO and over 350 rulings have been issued.

Detailed explanation-3: -The WTO’s system deals with these in two ways. One is by talking: countries negotiate rules that are acceptable to all. The other is by settling disputes about whether countries are playing by those agreed rules.

Detailed explanation-4: -US trade disputes China, India, the EU, Norway, Russia, Canada and Mexico have all lodged complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the steel and aluminium tariffs. The US itself has also lodged more than 100 complaints with the WTO against imports or the trade policies of nine countries and the EU.

Detailed explanation-5: -They start with broad principles: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (for goods), and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). (The third area, Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), also falls into this category although at present it has no additional parts.)