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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the World Trade Organization's (WTO) dispute settlement system, focusing on the: (1) outcome and commercial impact of completed cases involving the United States; and (2) major issues that have emerged in using the system."

Uzbekistan is actively pushing to achieve WTO membership after what will have been the longest accession negotiations ever. Uzbekistan's application to join the WTO dates from December 1994 but became dormant in the 2000s while still at a fairly early stage. After President Karimov died in August 2016, the process was reactivated by his successor, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The lengthy break was related to Karimov's inward-looking and interventionist economic development strategy and the revival after 2016 is associated with Mirziyoyev's more outward-oriented strategy. This paper analyses the evolution of Uzbekistan's application and the evolution of the WTO over this period. The answer to the question of whether Uzbekistan will, or should, join the WTO depends on the commitment to economic reform. If the government is serious about replacing dependence on resource exports by a more diversified competitive economy, then Uzbekistan will achieve and benefit from WTO membership. If the economy remains resistant to fundamental reform, then accession will be difficult and of little value if it happens.

Uzbekistan is actively pushing to achieve WTO membership after what will have been the longest accession negotiations ever. Uzbekistan's application to join the WTO dates from December 1994 but became dormant in the 2000s while still at a fairly early stage. After President Karimov died in August 2016, the process was reactivated by his successor, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The lengthy break was related to Karimov's inward-looking and interventionist economic development strategy and the revival after 2016 is associated with Mirziyoyev's more outward-oriented strategy. This paper analyses the evolution of Uzbekistan's application and the evolution of the WTO over this period. The answer to the question of whether Uzbekistan will, or should, join the WTO depends on the commitment to economic reform. If the government is serious about replacing dependence on resource exports by a more diversified competitive economy, then Uzbekistan will achieve and benefit from WTO membership. If the economy remains resistant to fundamental reform, then accession will be difficult and of little value if it happens.

The continued difficulties of the World Trade Organization to achieve further multilateral trade liberalization in the Doha Round negotiations have raised questions about its continued relevance. This paper firstly identifies and assesses the key developments in the Doha Round that have contributed to the present stalemate. Secondly, it presents several options that the organization could consider for defining its future work program, given the new realities of global economic engagement, especially the emergence of global production networks. Most importantly, the paper assesses the possibility of including new disciplines covering areas that can help the growth of these drivers of global economic integration. Such an initiative could include three sets of issue: trade facilitation measures, an equitable investment regime, and effective disciplines for curbing non-tariff barriers.

Ecological labels are a market-oriented environmental policy instrument which is applied in a rising number of countries. Products have to meet several criteria in order to qualify for a label. Criteria on production processes of goods can potentially conflict with international trade rules. This article focuses on the current relationship between ecological labels and the WTO legal system. The European Union suggested that this relationship should be more clearly identified and thus be negotiated during a new round of WTO trade talks. We discuss the EU approach and argue that standards on processes and production methods used in eco-labelling schemes are not part of the current WTO legal regime. There is no need, however, to amend the WTO text to comprise eco-labels. Rather, there should be more international co-ordination of standards used in eco-labelling programmes and more cooperation between labelling initiatives and WTO institutions. ; Ökologische Kennzeichen gehören zu den marktorientierten Instrumenten der Umweltpolitik und finden international zunehmend Anwendung. Sie enthalten Kriterien über die Herstellungsweise von Produkten, welche bei einer Anwendung auf ausländische Produkte zu Konflikten mit Exportländern führen können. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, worin die Probleme von freiwilligen Kennzeichnungsprogrammen im internationalen Handel liegen. Im Mittelpunkt steht der Vorschlag der Europäischen Kommission, die derzeitige Stellung der ökologischen Kennzeichen gegenüber dem Regelwerk der WTO in einer neuen WTO-Verhandlungsrunde zu klären. Es wird aufgezeigt, wie die in Kennzeichnungsprogrammen gesetzten Standards über Produktionsprozesse zu WTO-Regeln im Verhältnis stehen. Um künftig Konflikte aufgrund von ökologischen Kennzeichen zu vermeiden, sollten die Kennzeichnungsorganisationen bei der Festlegung von Kriterien miteinander international kooperieren und darüber hinaus sollte ein Austausch zwischen der WTO und diesen Organisationen erfolgen.

Economic integration is altering the role of the state and the concept of sovereignty in international law. Intensifying economic interdependence has rendered sovereignty almost meaningless for an isolated state. However, the transfer and pooling of sovereignty in a jointly designed and mutually acceptable legalistic international institution allows state interests to be both respected and represented at the international level. After addressing the European Union model for managing advanced economic integration, the paper examines the extent to which the legal and institutional attributes of the new World Trade Organization represents a move towards a more legalistic international trade order, entailing a transfer of sovereignty from the state to the international level.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has faced harsh criticism from developing nations in recent years. Many developing nations feel that the promises they received when they joined the WTO have not been fulfilled. These nations feel that wealthy, industrialized nations like the United States and the members of the European Union are the only ones that have benefited from the organization. Moreover, they feel that these developed nations have benefited at their expense through the WTO's dispute settlement process. Many improvements to the WTO have been proposed. However, the one that seems the most able to help developing nations, the Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL), has not received support from either the United States or the European Union. The Advisory Centre was established in 2001 and is the first center for legal aid in the international system. The goal of the Advisory Centre is to provide developing nations with training and legal assistance in WTO matters. The WTO is an intricate system of rights and obligations, supported by a binding dispute settlement mechanism to ensure compliance. Meaningful participation in the WTO requires a good understanding of these rights and obligations and the ability to participate in its dispute settlement mechanism. The ACWL has the potential to benefit every nation that participates in the WTO, not just developing nations. The ACWL legitimizes the WTO as a whole. When parties are equally represented, the entire system is legitimated. Therefore, both the United States and the European Union would ultimately benefit from supporting this organization.

Constructing multilateral rules to govern trade in agricultural goods has been notoriously difficult. What success there has been relied on linking liberalization in agriculture to broader deals involving multiple sectors through the principle of the single undertaking, but the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Nairobi ministerial conference of 2015 has abandoned that principle, shifting the multilateral trade system onto a new trajectory. Using the broad body of political economy theory, this article argues that there is now very little prospect that the WTO will be able to liberalize agricultural trade, with the consequence that the WTO will be unable to expand the trade opportunities of those countries that specialize in producing agricultural commodities. For this reason, the multilateral trade system looks increasingly ill-suited to the commercial needs of those low-income countries that are reliant on exporting agricultural goods and the promise of development through expanding trade based on comparative advantage is being tacitly pushed aside. This article argues that the abandonment of the single undertaking demands a deep reflection by WTO member states and other stakeholders on the underlying principles of the WTO, its future direction and how trade opportunities will be created for all within a system that has effectively abandoned further liberalization within agriculture.

The aim of the study is to present the premises that make it difficult to reach a multilateral agreement on electronic commerce in the World Trade Organization. Electronic commerce at the end of the second decade of the 21st century is an inseparable element of international trade, as a result of the digital revolution leading to lower costs when companies enter the global market. They often take into account the digital revolution of the state when creating new business models, especially in China, which has obtained the world's leading position in the field of digital services export. Increasing competition in the field of digital services, in the absence of regulations on electronic commerce in the WTO, will increase the interest of developed countries, including Australia, the United States, the European Union, Japan, African countries to solve the subject of e-commerce in regional integration agreements. The problems with reaching an agreement on electronic commerce in the WTO result not only from the specificity of trade in electronic form but from the general strategy of trade liberalization in other sectors. Classification-JEL: Keywords: International trade; electronic trade; e-commerce; World Trade Organization; digital economy

This paper examines whether the climate policy options policymakers are contemplating are compatible with core principles of the world trading system set forth in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Appellate Body decisions. The authors argue that border measures both import restrictive measures and export subsidies contemplated in US climate bills and the climate policies of other countries stand a fair chance of being challenged in the WTO. Given the prospect of foreseeable conflicts with WTO rules, the authors suggest that key WTO members should attempt to negotiate a new code that delineates a large 'green space' for measures that are designed to limit GHG emissions both within the member country and globally. By 'green space,' the authors mean policy space for climate measures that are imposed in a manner broadly consistent with core WTO principles even if a technical violation of WTO law could occur. To encourage WTO negotiating efforts along these lines, the authors recommend a time-limited 'peace clause' to be adopted into climate legislation of major emitting countries. The peace clause would suspend the application of border measures or other extraterritorial controls for a defined period while WTO negotiations are under way.

This paper examines whether the climate policy options policymakers are contemplating are compatible with core principles of the world trading system set forth in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Appellate Body decisions. The authors argue that border measures—both import restrictive measures and export subsidies—contemplated in US climate bills and the climate policies of other countries stand a fair chance of being challenged in the WTO. Given the prospect of foreseeable conflicts with WTO rules, the authors suggest that key WTO members should attempt to negotiate a new code that delineates a large "green space" for measures that are designed to limit GHG emissions both within the member country and globally. By "green space," the authors mean policy space for climate measures that are imposed in a manner broadly consistent with core WTO principles even if a technical violation of WTO law could occur. To encourage WTO negotiating efforts along these lines, the authors recommend a time-limited "peace clause" to be adopted into climate legislation of major emitting countries. The peace clause would suspend the application of border measures or other extraterritorial controls for a defined period while WTO negotiations are under way.

The best international agreement is not worth very much if its obligations cannot be enforced when one of the signatories fails to comply with such obligations. An effective mechanism to settle disputes thus increases the practical value of the commitments the signatories undertake in an international agreement. The fact that the Members of the (WTO)established the current dispute settlement system during the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations underscores the high importance they attach to compliance by all Members with their obligations under the WTO Agreement. Settling disputes in a timely and structured manner is important. It helps to prevent the detrimental effects of unresolved international trade conflicts and to mitigate the imbalances between stronger and weaker players by having their disputes settled on the basis of rules rather than having power determine the outcome. Most people consider the WTO dispute settlement system to be one of the major results of the Uruguay Round. After the entry into force of the WTO Agreement in 1995, the dispute settlement system soon gained practical importance as Members frequently resorted to using this system. In this research paper, main emphasis has been made to understand the dispute settlement system of WTO. Data has been collected from multiple sources. Many research papers, journals, websites, news papers and books have been consulted.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the negotiations on agricultural trade being conducted by the World Trade Organization (WTO), focusing on: (1) U.S. and other countries' objectives in the agricultural trade negotiations; (2) progress achieved during the 1999 WTO Seattle ministerial conference; and (3) prospects for future negotiations."

This report discusses disputes in the World Trade Organization (WTO) between the United States and the European Union (EU). The report begins with an overview of the issues to be addressed, and continues with a brief description of the WTO dispute settlement process, a summary of U.S.-EU dispute settlement history, and a review of issues arising from cases of longstanding non-compliance. The report concludes with a discussion of continuing concerns and policy considerations.

The WTO is one of the most important intergovernmental organizations in the world, yet the way in which it functions as an organization and the scope of its authority and power are still poorly understood. This comprehensively revised new edition of the acclaimed work by an outstanding team of WTO law specialists provides a complete overview of the law and practice of the WTO. The authors begin with the institutional law of the WTO (such as the sources of law and remedies of the dispute settlement system), then tackle the principal substantive obligations of the WTO regime (including tariffs, quotas, and MFN). They then move on to consider unfair trade, regional trading arrangements, and developing countries. In its final section the book deals with the consequences of globalization: first, where free trade is seen to be incompatible with environmental protection and, second, where WTO law confronts legal regimes governing issues of competition and intellectual property. ; https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/books/1130/thumbnail.jpg