Abstract
ABSTRACT With its dispute settlement system in peril, the role of the World Trade Organization in mitigating commercial conflict is more important than ever, but its working practices need reform. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and Technical Barriers to Trade committees have developed a mechanism for members to raise ‘specific trade concerns’ about the laws, regulations, and practices of their trading partners, both proposed and already implemented. These specific trade concerns can mitigate sources of friction and help avoid recourse to formal dispute settlement. This article assesses experience with specific trade concerns and analyzes suggestions for reform of the process and its extension to all World Trade Organization committees. The important World Trade Organization reform question is whether procedural changes in Geneva can make specific trade concerns more effective for all members while facilitating enhanced participation by members who do not now make full use of the possibilities that such procedures offer.
Highlights
This article assesses experience with specific trade concerns” (STCs) and assesses suggestions for reform of the process and its extension to all World Trade Organization (WTO) committees
STCs are most closely associated with the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) committees, but concerns are raised in all WTO bodies
In presenting its ideas (RD/Council for Trade in Goods (CTG)/9) at a CTG meeting in June 2019 (WTO, 2019c) Hong Kong, China added that for reoccurring items, especially for those discussed in other committees, an annotated agenda could enable members to be updated on how issues had developed since the Council's previous meeting, which would be helpful to small delegations that might not be able to cover the meetings of all subsidiary bodies
Summary
With its dispute settlement system in peril, the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in mitigating commercial conflict is more important than ever, but its working practices need reform, notably the procedures for discussing trade concerns. Officials need to be able to talk to each other about implementation, which they do in dozens of committee meetings every year. In those meetings they often raise “specific trade concerns” (STCs) on behalf of their firms. While we lack comparable data on the pyramids in other committees, from mid-October 2018 to midOctober 2019, 230 trade concerns were raised in bodies other than SPS and TBT, and only 29 dispute settlement panels began work. This year the report should detail how the body plans to institutionalize innovations in its working practices that emerged during the COVID-19 lockdown
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