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WTO Disputes

175 posts

The Obama Administration's Attack on Appellate Body Independence Shows The Need for Reforms

By Steve Charnovitz, George Washington University Law School The Obama Administration has not yet apologized for its unilateral action in May 2016 to unseat Appellate Body Member Seung Wha Chang, a distinguished jurist from South Korea. Although this hostile act by the United States has been roundly criticized by other

Attribution of the measures of an international organization to a member in the Russia - Tariff Treatment panel report

I was curious to know why the panel report in Russia - Tariff Treatment found violations by Russia because of duties that it was 'required' to apply. It turns out that the reason for this terminology is that the duty rates at issue were adopted, as a Common

The WTO congratulates itself on panel diversity - unfortunately its math is wrong

In this news release, https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news16_e/disp_21jun16_e.htm, the WTO announces that it has just appointed its 100th female dispute settlement panelist and compares itself favorably with other international tribunals, stating "[t]he WTO's dispute settlement system has

The Tuna/Dolphin Appellate Body 21.5 Ruling: A decision that could threaten the integrity and efficiency of WTO dispute settlement

As Susan Esserman and I pointed out in Foreign Affairs some years back, the WTO dispute settlement system is among the most advanced adjudicative mechanisms yet devised for international law. One of its innovative features is a means by which disagreements over compliance are themselves subject to resolution by the

Financial University Organizes Conference on Russia and the WTO

On 19-20 May 2015, the Financial University of the Russian Federation held its first international conference on the topic of "WTO Law in the Legal System of the Russian Federation: Problems of Application and Teaching." To my knowledge, this was the first international legal conference held to address

Significant Developments in SCM Benchmarking Jurisprudence

Within the last two weeks, the Appellate Body has issued two important decisions interpreting the SCM Agreement: US-Carbon Steel (India) (DS436), and US-CVD (China) (DS437). In DS436, India raised numerous complex issues under SCM; in DS437, China mounted a systematic challenge to more than a dozen US CVD investigations. While

Russia’s Account of Negotiation History: Reason for Deletion Further Explained

On the question raised in my last post – what was the reason for deleting from Russia’s accession protocol the sentence on non-derogation of its rights under the WTO Agreement – I have now located further explanation in Annex C-9 to the Panel Report in Rare Earths, INTEGRATED EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF

Negotiation History and Interpretation of WTO Accession Protocols

As indicated in my previous post, South Korea, a third party in the Rare Earths appeal, advocated referencing negotiation history in the interpretation of Paragraph 11.3 of China’s Accession Protocol. Para. 2.7.7of the AB Report reads in part: In Korea's view, the interpretation pursuant

A Lost Opportunity: Thoughts on the Result of China’s Appeal in Rare Earths

China lost its appeal in Rare Earths last week. The main issue on appeal: the availability of GATT XX exceptions to paragraph 11.3 of China’s Accession Protocol (AP), which contains China’s WTO-plus commitment to eliminate export duties and does not refer to GATT XX exceptions. This may

Trade Constitution 2.0

Both Professor Howse and Simon raised an important issue in the China-Rare Earths panel report, whose full ramifications, I believe, would go beyond this particular dispute. To me, the panel’s ostensibly nebulous position on GATT Article XX denotes hermeneutical birth pangs for the “Trade Constitution 2.0.” What I