WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) and Rep. Ron Kind’s (D-WI) bipartisan resolution encouraging the Administration to participate with other World Trade Organization (WTO) members in reforming the Appellate Body to address longstanding concerns and get the Appellate Body in working order passed House Committee on Ways and Means. Schweikert and Kind  introduced the resolution earlier this month with a large contingent of Committee members. The resolution now moves onto consideration by the full House.

Specifically, the resolution reaffirms the United States ‘commitment as a member of the WTO and work with other WTO members to achieve reforms that will:

• Improve the speed and predictability of dispute settlement
• Address longstanding concerns with the WTO’s Appellate Body
• Increase transparency at the WTO
• Ensure that WTO members invoke special and differential treatment reserved for developing countries only in fair and appropriate circumstances
• Update the WTO rules to address the needs of the United States and other free and open economies in the 21st century

“I am pleased to see the WTO resolution pass through the Ways and Means Committee today, reaffirming our support for the World Trade Organization and the widespread agreement on the need for meaningful reforms. Enforcement of our trade with neighbors is essential to maintaining our positive relationships with key allies, and strengthening our global trading abilities. I look forward to seeing this resolution be implemented and working with my Ways and Means colleagues in the future to further strengthen our trading relationships,” said Rep. David Schweikert.

I’m pleased that today we took a bipartisan step closer to the US again holding the pen and working with our allies to give the WTO the reforms it so desperately modernizing it for the 21st century,” said Rep. Ron Kind. “The WTO is the vital to enforcing the world’s rule-based trading system, resolving trade disputes peacefully, and preventing trade from just being a race to the bottom.”

The Ways and Means Committee is the most powerful – and the oldest – committee in the House of Representatives. It has jurisdiction over tax measures, the management of public debt, trade and tariff laws, Social Security, Medicare, pensions, and many other economic growth measures.

Read the resolution text here.

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