WTO Dispute Settlement Body

Page 1 of 8

Remodel the World Trade Organization: A Comparative Institutional Perspective

November 19, 2025

Gu Bin

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is under a prolonged stress test, as its Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala termed recently in a Financial Times article. This stress test is not unique; it is happening also to other international economic organizations (IEOs), as globalization shrinks and unilateralism spreads. An international organization seems much too vulnerable, facing the ongoing, tumultuous tide of geopolitics. But it may well turn the challenge into an opportunity, by way of physical fitness building. For the WTO, such physical fitness-building means remodeling its corporate governance, aiming to truly establish a legal personality, as committed in its charter. This work starts with WTO decision-making. …

The Pitfalls of Addressing Rising Industrial Un-competitiveness Through Trade Remedies

October 21, 2025

Victor Crochet

Weihuan Zhou

Energy costs have been rising, particularly in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This price hike is a major blow to heavy industries for which energy makes up a large part of the cost of production. The issue has been further exacerbated by the fact that the affected products are mostly commodities. As a result, producers…

Have WTO Members Successfully Circumvented the US’ Blockade of the Appellate Body? (and How Would We Know?)

February 13, 2024

Krzysztof Pelc

On January 26th, in what has become a repeat performance of global governance kabuki, Guatemala put forth a proposal on behalf of 130 World Trade Organization members to relaunch the selection process for Appellate Body adjudicators. It was the 73rd time it was doing so, and for the 73rd time, the US exercised its right to block the…

Fukushima Revisited: ALPS Water Release, China’s Import Ban and the SPS Agreement at the WTO

October 11, 2023

Yoshimichi Ishikawa

Since the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) in Japan, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has been continuously injecting water to cool the fuel debris. This water becomes contaminated with radionuclides. To address this issue, TEPCO has utilized the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) to remove…

US – Origin Marking Requirement: Did the WTO Panel Get the Balance Right between Trade Security and National Security?

January 25, 2023

Hitoshi Nasu

On 21 December 2022, the WTO Dispute Settlement Panel ruled against the United States (US) on the product labeling requirement for all goods from Hong Kong to be marked “China” as their country of origin. This requirement came from the executive order that then US President Donald Trump signed on 14 July…

Page 1 of 8
Last

Popular in WTO Dispute Settlement Body

The Right to Regulate for Public Morals Upheld (Somewhat): The WTO Panel Report in EC-Seal Products

January 27, 2014

Diane Desierto

There have been few interpretations of Article XX(a) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1994) - the specific exception that justifies what would ordinarily be a State's GATT-inconsistent measure, unless such measure is deemed "necessary to protect public morals". As with any of the ten enumerated exceptions under Article XX of GATT 1994, a State invoking GATT…

China’s View of International Litigation: Is the WTO Special?

November 13, 2015

Dapo Akande

Yesterday, Geraldo Vidigal put up a really interesting post looking at recent patterns of use of the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement system. One thing that was particularly striking to me was the extent to which China has participated in the WTO dispute settlement system given its previous position on resolution of disputes…

The ‘Mackerel War’ Goes to the WTO

November 13, 2013

Jacques Hartmann and Michael Waibel

In a typical David and Goliath story, the Faroe Islands - a small archipelago situated northwest of Scotland, halfway between Iceland and Norway, and inhabited by less than 50,000 people - have requested consultations with the European Union under the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Understanding. The dispute, which concerns fishing rights in the North Atlantic, has been dubbed…

Living in the Shadow of Flawed Peace: How General International Law Is Implicated in the Trade War between Japan and South Korea

August 22, 2019

Dr Ming-Sung Kuo

As the anniversary of V-J Day approaches, the legacy of World War II still casts a long shadow on its previous Pacific theatre. Last month, an unprecedented quadripartite incident involving warplanes from, inter alia, Japan and South Korea played out in the territorial airspace of the contested Dokdo/Takeshima islands, disputed territory that was left unresolved in the…