The US wins World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade enforcement disputes

The US has won a major victory at the WTO on behalf of the nation's farmers and the poultry industry. The WTO found in favour of the US in a dispute challenging India's ban on agricultural imports from the US such as poultry, meat, eggs and live pigs, allegedly to protect India fromthe spread of disease. The panel agreed that India's ban broke international trade rules and was imposed without sufficient scientific evidence.

This is the fourth major WTO victory that the US has announced this year. The US government is determined to extend economic opportunity for US workers, farmers and businesses.

Earlier US victories at the WTO in 2014 were:

In June, the WTO found that China broke rules by imposing unjustified extra import duties on US cars. In 2013, an estimated US$5.1 billion of US car exports were covered by those duties.

In August, the WTO found that China broke WTO rules by imposing quotas on Chinese exports of tungsten and molybdenum. These are important raw material inputs used by US manufacturers of products such as car batteries, wind turbines, energy-efficient lighting, steel, petroleum and chemicals.

Also in August, the WTOagreed with the US that Argentina's import-licensing requirementand other import restrictions broke international trade rules. The Argentine measures unfairly restricted imports of US goods, potentially affecting billions of dollars of US exports, including computers, industrial and agricultural chemicals, transport equipment, machine tools, parts for oilfield rigs and refined fuel oil.

Source: The Prairie Star, 19 October 2014

Table 1: US Trade in Goods with India 2009-2014

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Exports

(US$ millions)

16 441

19 249

21 542

22 106

21 842

23 600

Imports

(US$ millions)

21 166

29 533

36 155

40 513

41 845

45 228

Source: US Census Bureau

Consider whether the protectionist measures adopted by countries such as India,China and Argentina regarding trade with the US could ever be justified.