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The Impending Dejudicialization of the WTO Dispute Settlement System?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2019

Richard H. Steinberg
Richard H. Steinberg*
Affiliation:
Professor of Law and Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles.
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Extract

The Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is facing a crisis. Appointment of AB members requires a consensus of the Dispute Settlement Body (comprised of all WTO members), and the United States has been blocking a consensus on further appointments since Donald J. Trump became the president. Without new appointments, the ranks of the AB have been diminishing as AB members’ terms have been expiring. If this continues (and many expect the United States to continue blocking a consensus on appointments), then in December 2019, through attrition, the number of AB members will fall below the threshold necessary to render decisions, at which point the AB will cease to function.

Type
Revisiting the Multilateral Trading System
Information
Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting , Volume 112 , 2018 , pp. 316 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © by The American Society of International Law 2019 

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References

1 Ross Perot, Comments during the Third U.S. Presidential Debate of 1992 (Oct. 19, 1992).

2 See, e.g., Terry Stewart, Speech at a panel discussion, The Broken Multilateral Trade Dispute System, presented at the Asia Society Policy Institute (Feb. 7, 2018).

3 Claude Barfield, Free Trade, Sovereignty, Democracy: The Future of the World Trade Organization, 2(2) Chi. J. Int'l L. 403, 408 (2001), at https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1420&context=cjil.

4 Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes, Apr. 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 2, 1869 UNTS 401. [hereinafter DSU]

5 Anthea Roberts, Is International Law International? (2018).

6 DSU, supra note 4, Art. 3.2.

7 Id.

8 Agreement on the Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, Art. 17.6.ii, Apr. 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1, 1868 UNTS 201.

9 See, e.g., McRae, Donald, Treaty Interpretation by the WTO Appellate Body: The Conundrum of Article 17.6 of the WTO Antidumping Agreement, in The Law of Treaties Beyond the Vienna Convention 164 (Cannizzaro, Enzo ed., 2011)Google Scholar.