全球智库信息集成服务系统

Click here to download the August 2003 update of this paper (59 kb)

The eighth of a series prepared by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development. Among the Uruguay Round's final documents, a 1994 Ministerial Decision agreed to a "full review of dispute settlement rules and procedures under the World Trade Organisation within four years after the entry into force of the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organisation." Ministers further agreed to "take a decision on the occasion of [their] first meeting after the completion of the review, whether to continue, modify or terminate such dispute settlement rules and procedures." Members agreed to complete the review by 1 January 1999, which was later extended to 31 January 1999. The exercise yielded no concrete conclusions, however, and the review languished in an inconclusive limbo until ministers agreed in Doha to "improve and clarify" the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). These negotiations have been taking place in special sessions of the Dispute Settlement Body since March 2002 (DSB).