Appellate Body and its future - Hear what the experts have to say

For those who missed the webinar on Appellate Body crisis and what the future holds for WTO dispute settlement, here is the video recording of the session. The session had Peter Van den Bossche, Joost Pauwelyn, Simon Lester and Cherise Valles debating on what is in store and how to get there!

The session brought up interesting insights on the standard of appellate review, the impartiality and fairness of judicial review, complexity of WTO cases, alternatives to the Appellate Body and how far they will go, differential deference standard for trade remedy cases and what the future holds for dispute settlement.

One would have to wait and see if the appellate review process gets back on track at the WTO anytime soon. What are the implications of this for multilateral trade rule enforcement, access to a rules based system, reversion to power dynamics in trade relations as well as the efficacy of global rules themselves.

What will it take to get the Appellate Body back on track?

The Appellate Body at the World Trade Organization has been facing a severe existential crisis for a couple of years now. What can be done to revive it? Is it possible at all? What will it take for the adjudication system to be back on track?

Watch this excellent panel I am introducing on 19th November, 2021 at 10 am EST (4 pm Geneva Time, 8.30 pm IST). Here is the IELP blog reference. 

The zoom link is here - https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_u078UN5HQqCiF_IYkaipAw

What next at the WTO Ministerial?

I recently introduced and facilitated a panel discussion on the likely outcomes for XII WTO MC to be held in a few days. Great inputs from Alan Wolff, Harsha Vardhan Singh, J.S.Deepak and Gabrielle Marceau on what the stakes are and what could be realistically achieved. 

Views ranged from optimism on ambitious outcomes to a realism of national interests prevailing. Negotiation at the WTO has always been achieving that balance! Glacial speed negotiations with perennial optimism!

Alan Wolff, former DDG of the WTO, shared the written version of his text here. The video recording of the session is found here.

Watch the panel discussion and await a debrief from a month from now!