Some years ago there was a proposal to increase the number of AB members.
Under the current situation the 7 member AB can handle around 10-12 appeals at most per year. That’s stretching the envelope. And this is with AB Members working almost full-time. This operational cap is thus simply not enough given the level of demand.
If, for example, Members decided to increase the number of members to 9, the maximum per year could be increased by approximately a third.
This could potentially address the bottleneck at the AB stage to some degree. ...
This is from a very interesting and detailed speech on WTO dispute settlement. Read the whole thing.
The case for more AB members seems like a strong one. But there's a problem: Who gets those extra slots? If I recall correctly, at the start of the WTO, the U.S. and EU both wanted two AB member positions for their nationals. They eventually agreed to one each. But with new positions up for grabs, which countries will fight to claim those spots? Will the U.S. and EU renew their argument that they should each have two spots? No doubt others will want a spot, and will make their own claim.
The politics of this sound daunting.
