A trade official source said on Friday that negotiations to revive the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement system are moving along and that drafting an agreement should start soon.
Countries “have reached agreement on 80% of the issues under consideration, which are now ripe to move to the drafting process,” the official claimed.
Regarding the other 20%, the official stated that while half of the topics “are close to reaching the level of maturity needed” to begin drafting, the other 50% are “highly sensitive issues for which members still hold different conceptual views about how to tackle them.”
The writing process would not start until September because the WTO is normally closed in August.
Washington has long argued that the WTO’s dispute resolution process, particularly its Appellate Body, is unfairly biased.
The appeals tribunal, also known as the supreme court of international commerce, has been inactive since the end of 2019 since the United States, led by President Donald Trump, prevented the nomination of new judges and insisted on a significant reorganization.
The administration of President Joe Biden, who will succeed Trump, has shown a desire to reassert American involvement in multilateral organizations.
In order to make the WTO more effective, it seeks to change it, particularly the dispute resolution process.
However, the United States has persisted in obstructing the hiring procedure intended to fill openings on the system’s appeals tribunal.
n a document presented at the WTO on July 5, Washington said it intends to “lead in all areas where we can contribute, including on dispute settlement reform”.
“A well-functioning dispute settlement system supports all WTO members in the resolution of their disputes in an efficient and transparent manner, and in doing so limits the needless complexity and interpretive overreach that has characterised dispute settlement in recent years,” it said.
Members of the WTO adopted a document advocating for upgrading all WTO functions at the conclusion of its most recent Ministerial Conference in June 2022. The WTO has not significantly altered its regulations since its founding in 1995.
By 2024, it was mandated that the dispute resolution process be fully operational once more.
The deal is intended to be finalized during the upcoming WTO ministerial meeting, which will take place at the end of February in Abu Dhabi.
