The United States has notified the European Union that it is prepared to risk derailing attempts to reform one of the pillars of multilateral trade cooperation if the Union reopens a case in the World Trade Organization against Washington over the steel and aluminum dispute in the Trump era.
European diplomats and officials said that US Trade Representative Katherine Tai told her G7 counterparts last month that if the European Union filed the complaint, it would have consequences for efforts to reform and revive the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement system, according to Bloomberg. the East.
They added that the United States will evaluate its cooperation with the European Union on WTO reform based on the bloc’s actions.
The Appellate Body – the most prominent forum for resolving global trade disputes – is currently experiencing faltering due to American maneuvers. Restoring a full-fledged dispute settlement system has long been a major priority for Europeans.
