Here's an excerpt from a short piece I wrote for IISD Trade and Sustainability Review about the WTO dispute settlement crisis:
... the key here, regardless of whether it is the Appellate Body specifically or dispute settlement more generally [that the U.S. is concerned with], is to make actual proposals for reform. It is fine for the United States to have objections to the functioning of the Appellate Body or the broader system. But if it has specific concerns, it needs to propose solutions. This applies whether we are talking about the narrow “Appellate Body crisis” or the broader “WTO dispute settlement reform.”
Whichever the issue, the first step to a solution is for the United States, as the government imposing the appointments block, to offer concrete suggestions for the changes it would like to see. If it does not offer any ideas for new language to address the points it has raised, the system is in danger of decaying further, and the United States itself is at risk of being left out as others move forward.
