{"id":54242,"date":"2019-12-23T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T10:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=54242"},"modified":"2020-02-26T15:47:33","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T10:17:33","slug":"7-pm-ironing-out-the-wrinkles-in-trade-disputes-adjudication-23rd-december-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-ironing-out-the-wrinkles-in-trade-disputes-adjudication-23rd-december-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | Ironing out the wrinkles in trade disputes adjudication | 23rd December 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context:\n<\/strong>WTO\u2019s\nappellate body is no longer functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>More\nin news:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>WTO&#8217;s appellate body\nbecomes dysfunctional from 10<sup>th<\/sup> December.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>World\nTrade Organization (WTO):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The World Trade Organization came into\nbeing in 1995. One of the youngest of the international organizations, the WTO\nis the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)\nestablished in the wake of the Second World War.<\/li><li>The system was developed through a\nseries of trade negotiations, or rounds, held under the GATT. The first rounds\ndealt mainly with tariff reductions but later negotiations included other areas\nsuch as anti-dumping and non-tariff measures. The 1986-94 round \u2013 the Uruguay\nRound \u2013 led to the WTO\u2019s creation.<\/li><li>The negotiations did not end there. In\n1997, an agreement was reached on telecommunications services, with 69\ngovernments agreeing to wide-ranging liberalization measures that went beyond\nthose agreed in the Uruguay Round.<\/li><li>In 2000, new talks started on agriculture\nand services. These were incorporated into a broader work programme, the Doha\nDevelopment Agenda, launched at the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha,\nQatar, in November 2001.<\/li><li>The new work programme included\nnegotiations and other work on non- agricultural tariffs, trade and the\nenvironment, WTO rules on anti-dumping and subsidies, trade facilitation,\ntransparency in government procurement, intellectual property and a range of\nissues raised by developing economies as difficulties they face in implementing\nWTO agreements.<\/li><li>A revised Government Procurement\nAgreement \u2013 adopted at the WTO\u2019s 8th Ministerial Conference in 2011 \u2013 expanded\nthe coverage of the original agreement by an estimated US$ 100 billion a year.<\/li><li>At the 9th Ministerial Conference in\nBali in 2013, WTO members struck the Agreement on Trade Facilitation, which\naims to reduce border delays by slashing red tape.<\/li><li>The expansion of the Information\nTechnology Agreement \u2013 concluded at the 10th Ministerial Conference in Nairobi\nin 2015 \u2013 eliminated tariffs on an additional 200 IT products valued at over\nUS$ 1.3 trillion per year. Another outcome of the Conference was a decision to\nabolish agricultural export subsidies, fulfilling one of the key targets of the\nUN Sustainable Development Goal on \u201cZero hunger\u201d.<\/li><li>Most recently, an amendment to the WTO\u2019s\nIntellectual Property Agreement entered into force in 2017, easing poor\neconomies\u2019 access to affordable medicines. The same year saw the Trade\nFacilitation Agreement enter into force.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Functions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The WTO\u2019s overriding objective is to\nhelp trade flow smoothly, freely and predictably. It does this by:<\/li><li>administering trade agreements<\/li><li>acting as a forum for trade negotiations<\/li><li>settling trade disputes<\/li><li>reviewing national trade policies<\/li><li>building the trade capacity of\ndeveloping economies<\/li><li>cooperating with other international\norganizations<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Appellate\nBody:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The Appellate Body was established in\n1995 under Article&nbsp;17 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures\nGoverning the Settlement of Disputes (DSU). <\/li><li>It is a standing body of seven persons\nthat hears appeals from reports issued by panels in disputes brought by WTO\nMembers. <\/li><li>The Appellate Body can uphold, modify or\nreverse the legal findings and conclusions of a panel.<\/li><li>Appellate Body Reports once adopted by\nthe Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), must be accepted by the parties to the\ndispute. <\/li><li>The Appellate Body has its seat in\nGeneva, Switzerland.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\nhas happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The US has stalled appointments of\nmembers in the appellate body of WTO&#8217;s dispute settlement system.<\/li><li>On 11 December 2019, there was only one\nactive Appellate Body&nbsp; member left. This\nmakes the appeals process of the WTO dysfunctional, given that a minimum of\nthree Appellate Body members are needed to consider an appeal of a panel\nreport.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Views\nof other WTO members:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many WTO Members\nhave also made clear that they regard a dysfunctional Appellate Body as a\nserious problem for the trading system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>One reason is that, depending on how WTO\nMembers interpret the text of the Dispute Settlement Understanding, panel\nreports may no longer be adopted automatically if disputing parties appeal\npanel findings to an Appellate body that is in limbo, thereby leaving the\nmatter unresolved.&nbsp;<\/li><li>The main fear is that without the appellate\nBody the WTO dispute settlement system will lose much of its predictability,\nand may eventually collapse. This in turn has potentially serious consequences\nfor future rule-making efforts in the WTO, as the value of negotiated outcomes\ndepends on the ability of signatories to enforce them.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Alternative\npathways taken:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Several states have adopted ad hoc\nsolutions. States such as Indonesia and&nbsp;Vietnam&nbsp;have, through a no\nappeal pact, agreed in advance not to appeal the ruling of the panel in the\ndispute between them, effectively waiving their right of appeal. <\/li><li>The European Union (EU), Norway and\nCanada have agreed on an interim appeal system for resolving any disputes\nthrough arbitration using Article 25 of the dispute settlement understanding in\na process mirroring that of the Appellate Body with former Appellate Body members\nappointed as arbitrators. <\/li><li>The EU has even threatened to launch\ncountermeasures under general international law for countries that lose at the\npanel stage but refuse recourse to the interim appeal system under Article 25\nof the dispute settlement understanding and instead appeal the report \u201cin\nlimbo\u201d with a view to avoid the adoption of the report altogether.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The fall of the WTO Appellate Body\nrepresents a turbulent period in the history of trade disputes adjudication, it\nby no means spells the end of the WTO. <\/li><li>It presents an opportunity to the\nmembers to rethink and \u201ciron out some of the creases\u201d with the present\nsystem.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source:\n<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/ironing-out-the-wrinkles-in-trade-disputes-adjudication\/article30374429.ece\">https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/ironing-out-the-wrinkles-in-trade-disputes-adjudication\/article30374429.ece<\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: WTO\u2019s appellate body is no longer functional. More in news: WTO&#8217;s appellate body becomes dysfunctional from 10th December. World Trade Organization (WTO): The World Trade Organization came into being in 1995. One of the youngest of the international organizations, the WTO is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) established&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-ironing-out-the-wrinkles-in-trade-disputes-adjudication-23rd-december-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | Ironing out the wrinkles in trade disputes adjudication | 23rd December 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,955,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-pm","category-7-pm-brief-infograph","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}