Emerging Trends in WTO Dispute Settlement : Back to the GATT?

Holmes, Peter ; Rollo, Jim ; Young, Alasdair R.

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: TRENDS;    SETTLEMENTS;    REGULATORY PROGRAMS;    DEVELOPED COUNTRIES;    TRADE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-3133
RP-ID  :  WPS3133

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

As the number of cases in the WorldTrade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement system hasincreased, there has been a greater effort by the academiccommunity to analyze the data for emerging trends. HolmesRollo, and Young seek to develop this literature using dataup to the end of 2002 to ask whether recent trends confirmpreviously identified patterns and to examine whether thereare divergences from the overall pattern according to thetype of dispute. They focus on three questions inparticular: What explains which countries are most involvedin complaints under the dispute settlement understanding? Isthere a discernible pattern to which countries win? Is therea difference to these patterns depending on the type ofmeasure at the heart of the complaint? The authors findthat: A country's trade share is a pretty robustindicator of its likelihood to be either a complainant or arespondent. The frequently remarked absence of the leastdeveloped countries from the dispute settlement system canbe explained by their low volume of trade. There is notmuch, if any, evidence of a bias against developingcountries either as complainants or respondents. Regulatoryissues are fading as reasons for disputes and trade defensedisputes are the rising issue. Complainants overwhelminglywin (88 percent of cases). There is no strong evidence thatthe rate of completion of cases is biased against newlyindustrializing countries or traditional less developed countries.