On 21 November, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) agreed to requests from seven members for the establishment of panels to examine tariffs imposed by the United States on steel and aluminum imports. The DSB also agreed to four US requests for panels to examine countermeasures imposed by China, Canada, the European Union and Mexico on US imports in response to the steel and aluminum tariffs.
The first requests of the mentioned seven countries were blocked by the US at the DSB meeting on October 29. They submitted their second requests to challenge the decision by the United States to impose an additional customs duty of 10 percent on imports of aluminum products and an additional customs duty of 25 percent on imports of certain steel products and reiterated their belief that the US measures allegedly taken for national security were in fact safeguard measures against steel and aluminum imports.