G7 Trade Ministers Call for Coordination on Overcapacity, Trade and Environment Policy

Trade ministers from the U.S., the EU, France, Italy, the U.K., Canada, Germany and Japan reiterated that they are committed to revising the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement, monitoring and negotiating functions, and to restoring a fully functioning dispute settlement system by year-end.

"We call on relevant Members to refrain from claiming Special and Differential Treatment in the WTO, commensurate with their economic weight and role in the global trading system," the Group of 7 ministers wrote, according to an unofficial translation of a July 17 joint statement released by Italy.

While they expressed disappointment in progress at the 13th Ministerial Conference, but they said maintaining the moratorium on customs duties until the next conference was important, and they are calling for a permanent prohibition on tariffs on digital goods.

They said WTO negotiations should intensify for trade and environmental issues, both for promoting and facilitating trade in environmental services and goods, and for fighting plastic pollution.

"We acknowledge that our trade policies, as well as public and private investments will play a major role in achieving common goals of addressing the climate crisis and accelerating the global clean energy transition," they wrote, and said they want to cooperate, and not act at each other's expense.

The statement also continued to emphasize that nonmarket overcapacity and distorting subsidies are a problem, and should be tackled both in the WTO and with trade tools in their own countries. They also pledged to increase cooperation among countries to confront these issues.

The countries also said they want to reduce critical dependencies, including those linked to nonmarket practices. They said G7 countries should work collectively to identify critical goods and strategic sectors' supply chains, and should consider not just economic factors. They also wrote, "We will support diplomatic efforts with those contributing to overcapacity to address the issue at its source, while intensifying engagement with developing countries and emerging markets on our shared concerns on these practices."

They thanked Australia, Brazil, Chile, India, Kenya, New Zealand, South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam representatives for their input on supply chain resilience during the meeting's opening session.

"We will increase our commitment to keep our economies open and competitive and to promote free and fair trade and investment," they wrote, "and we will engage partners globally, including in regions like the Indo-Pacific, Latin America and Africa."