A Mexican government account tweeted, and then deleted a tweet hailing a victory in the state-to-state dispute with the U.S. over the American interpretation of the auto rules of origin, Reuters reported. The panel's conclusions were shared last month with Canada, Mexico and the U.S., and the three countries had submitted their responses Nov. 29, according to the docket, but the report has not been made public yet.

In a briefing to members of the European Parliament, the European Commission's top trade official, Valdis Dombrovskis, said he expects the negotiations with the U.S. over the discriminatory aspects of the Inflation Reduction Act to partially, but not fully, resolve EU concerns.

U.K. Minister for Trade Policy Greg Hands is traveling across the U.S. to meet with various state officials on boosting trade ties at the state level, the Department for International Trade announced Dec. 7. During the trip, Hands will sign the U.K.'s third memorandum of understanding with a U.S. state to increase trade and investment.

European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager told reporters that a trade war over America's Inflation Reduction Act's discrimination against European production of EVs and EV batteries is not where Europe wants to go.

The top trade official in the EU, Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, said that it's important that the upcoming U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council meeting deliver "concrete and tangible results." He said Nov. 21 in Brussels: "I am hopeful that we will deliver some attractive results to facilitate trade. I am thinking notably of conformity assessment in specific sectors, and how to make better use of digital tools to ease trans-Atlantic trade.

Climate goals cannot be reached without taking into account the role of international trade, World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a Nov. 8 speech at an event with world leaders at the COP27 climate summit. In her speech, Okonjo-Iweala marked the publication of the World Trade Report, which lays out paths for governments to use trade to support national action plans for grappling with climate change, the WTO said. Examples of this trade action include lowering trade barriers for environmental goods and services, boosting cooperation on carbon measurement and verification, and shifting the WTO's Aid-for-Trade initiative to an investment program that expands sustainable trade opportunities in developing nations.

The EU is hoping for concrete input from the U.S. by year-end on changes to the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement system (see 2210180006), an EU official said, adding member states are growing increasingly impatient about the U.S.’s lack of action. Sabine Weyand, the European Commission’s director-general, also said the discussions within the EU on extending WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS waiver) have become more difficult.

The French and German economy ministers met earlier this week, and after their talk, told reporters that the subsidies under the U.S.'s Inflation Reduction Act are problematic for the relationship between the U.S. and the EU.

The World Trade Organization expects global trade growth to "lose momentum" in the second half of the year and remain tepid in 2023 given multiple shocks to the world economy, the WTO said. Global merchandise trade is now predicted to grow by 3.5% in 2022, but to improve by only 1% in 2023, down from an earlier estimate of 3.4%, the trade body said. The WTO expects import demand to slow given high energy prices stemming from Russia's war in Ukraine and tightening monetary policy in the U.S. that will impact interest-sensitive spending in industries such as housing. Further, China's COVID-19 policy and production disruptions coupled with weak external demand along with "growing import bills for fuels, food and fertilizers could lead to food insecurity and debt distress in developing countries," the WTO said.

CARICOM, the economic-integration organization covering the Caribbean Community, with 15 member states, believes its Trade and Investment Forum Agreement with the U.S. has been underutilized, and trade experts are brainstorming about ways to change that trajectory.