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In a meeting of the WTO General Council, those members
demonstrated their deep concern that "continued vacancies in the
Appellate Body present a risk to the WTO as a whole."
While reaffirming their commitment to the rules-based
multilateral trading system, they underscored the dispute settlement system
as a central pillar of the WTO.
"Such a system is also essential in building confidence
amongst members in the negotiating pillar," said the statement.
The Appellate Body functions as the WTO's de facto court of
appeals and is composed of seven members. However, only four of the seven
members are in office since Washington has refused to initiate the process to
fill vacancies.
In November, a dozen of WTO members, including China and the EU,
have submitted two joint proposals on the reform of the WTO's dispute
settlement mechanism.
The first proposal gives proper solutions to transitional rules
of outgoing Appellate Body members, and the second strengthens the
independence of the Appellate Body, increases its efficiency and capability
and proposes to automatically launch its selection process.
In Wednesday's statement, the members took note of the concerns
about the functioning of the dispute settlement system, saying that they are
"ready to work on solutions, while preserving the essential features of
the system and of its Appellate Body."
Underlining their commitment to engaging in discussions on
"substantive rules" of the Appellate Body, they called on
interested members to advance ideas on how to take this process forward.
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Source: NDO
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