The Timing of Panel Reports

As I discussed recently, the U.S. has raised the issue of the length of time it has been taking the Appellate Body to circulate its reports. But what about the length of time panels have been taking? DSU Articles 12.8 and 12.9 say this:

8. In order to make the procedures more efficient, the period in which the panel shall conduct its examination, from the date that the composition and terms of reference of the panel have been agreed upon until the date the final report is issued to the parties to the dispute, shall, as a general rule, not exceed six months. In cases of urgency, including those relating to perishable goods, the panel shall aim to issue its report to the parties to the dispute within three months.

9. When the panel considers that it cannot issue its report within six months, or within three months in cases of urgency, it shall inform the DSB in writing of the reasons for the delay together with an estimate of the period within which it will issue its report. In no case should the period from the establishment of the panel to the circulation of the report to the Members exceed nine months.

Let's look at the period of time taken by the first 10 WTO panels (for the early panels, some of the dates were not made public):

Now let's look at the last 10 panels:

With regard to speeding up WTO dispute settlement and adhering to the DSU deadlines, where should the focus be and what improvements are possible? As I said in relation to the appellate process, perhaps the original deadlines are no longer realistic for panels. Maybe we need to extend those time-frames a bit, but then somehow force/encourage panels to comply with them.