Argentina under fire at WTO over trade measures

BRUSSELS/GENEVA (Reuters) - The European Union filed a suit against Argentina's import restrictions with the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday, intensifying the disputes between the South American nation and its trading partners. The EU's executive Commission said the case followed measures by Argentina that include an import licensing regime and an obligation on companies to balance imports with exports. "Argentina's import restrictions violate international trade rules and must be removed," said EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht. ...

Last Friday, the Obama administration had a rather busy day handling China trade issues.  First, USTR announced that it was initiating, at the United Steelworker's request under "Section 301" of US trade law, an investigation of Chinese subsidies and other trade measures related to "green" energy production:

The federal government has added Mexico, Israel and six other countries to the list of so-called “safe” nations Canada has deemed unlikely to produce legitimate asylum claimants. The addition Thursday, which takes effect immediately, brings to 35 the number of countries now on the list.

As you may recall, when the United States passed a law in March 2012 overruling a couple federal court decisions and retroactively applying US law to scads of completed countervailing duty investigations of Chinese imports, I explained that the law's illogical, biased structure - in particular, not addressing WTO-inconsistent "double counting" in any case completed before the law's enactment - all but guaranteed at least one WTO cha

After the US Department of Commerce initiated a trade remedies investigation into Chinese solar power imports, China has responded in a completely predictable manner:

The World Trade Organization cut its 2011 trade growth forecast to 5.8 percent from 6.5 percent as earlier predicted, amid increasing economic uncertainty on Friday."Members must remain vigilant. This is not the time for go-it-alone measures. This is the time to strengthen and preserve the global trading system so that it keeps performing this vital function in the future," warned Pascal Lamy, director-general of the WTO, in a statement.Trade volumes in developed economies are now projected to grow by 3.7 percent for 2011, as opposed to the 4.5 percent predicted in April.

Over the last year or so , I've frequently expressed concern about the potential for increasing trade frictions over green protectionism, i.e., anti-trade measures couched in allegedly environmental terms.