Please click here if this newsletter looks incorrect

 
 
 
 

New Publication

November 26, 2019

The WTO’s Appellate Body is in crisis. We survey what insiders think about dispute settlement.

 

WTO Dispute Settlement and the Appellate Body Crisis – Insider Perceptions and Members’ Revealed Preferences

On December 10, the Appellate Body of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Mechanism will lose its functionality. After that, trade disputes between WTO Members cannot be finally and bindingly resolved – which is worrying news in a world of trade wars. Our newest publication asks the users of the dispute settlement system how they view the work of the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO and where they have concerns.

The survey produces three main insights, some of which are novel, some of which were widely known:

  • What crisis? The crisis actually concerns a small subset of the membership. A large share of the membership has not made use of dispute settlement in the past – but those who have, are particularly large trading powers. This is also reflected in our survey – the respondents cover only a relatively small number of member states.

  • Consensus on two-stage adjudication. Among the respondents, there is a widely shared sense that the two stage adjudication is important in safeguarding the integrity of WTO rules. There is also a large agreement that decisions of the AB should constitute precedents, a point that the US strongly disputes.

  • Doubts on the quality of outcomes: The quality of the decisions AB is questioned by the majority of the respondents of the survey – they accuse the AB of being sometimes biased and going beyond their mandate. There is also a feeling that the influence of the WTO Secretariat is too large. 

The analysis of the Appellate Body survey can be found here.

The detailed answers to all questions are here.

 

 

About Global Economic Dynamics (GED):

We help make complex economic dynamics transparent and understandable.

The project examines the causes and effects of economic trends, as well as the connections linking one trend to another.

 

To change your profile or subscribe to more Bertelsmann Stiftung newsletters, click here.

 

Forwarded this e-mail by a friend? Click here to subscribe to the GED project newsletter.

 

To unsubscribe from this newsletter, click here.

 

Andreas Esche

Director, Program Megatrends

 

Bertelsmann Stiftung

Carl-Bertelsmann-Str. 256

33311 Gütersloh

Germany

Tel: +49 5241 81-81333

Fax: +49 5241 81-681333

E-mail: ged@bertelsmann-stiftung.de

Web: www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de

 

The Bertelsmann Stiftung, based in Gütersloh, Germany, is a nonprofit, private

operating foundation in accordance with Section 1 of North Rhine-Westphalia's Foundation Law.

The district government of Detmold serves as its supervisory authority.

Founder: Reinhard Mohn

Chairman of the Board of Trustees: Prof. Dr. Werner J. Bauer

Executive Board: Dr. Ralph Heck (Chairman), Dr. Brigitte Mohn, Prof. Dr. Daniela Schwarzer