Is Something Going Wrong in the WTO Dispute Settlement?

Abstract

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is in crisis with all three of its main functions in decline. Most conspicuously, the negotiations in the Doha Round are stalled because of the profound shift in trade and economic power and after the repeated failure of a negotiating approach which ignored the lessons of the Uruguay Round, a round which succeeded by building consensus at the technical level before trying to take it to the political level. As a result of an excessive concentration on the negotiations, monitoring and surveillance of the implementation of WTO rules have been seriously neglected. It is most alarming that dispute settlement, the main focus of the paper and long considered the area in which the WTO has been most effective, is now in danger of losing the confidence of Members, following a series of questionable rulings by the Appellate Body. The Appellate Body Report on US - Definitive Anti-dumping and Countervailing Duties on Certain Products from China is a remarkable illustration of this troublesome situation.