WTO considers reform of dispute settlement mechanism a “priority”

Feb 13 (Reuters) – The director general of the World Trade Organization said on Monday that reforming the dispute settlement system was a “priority”.

When asked if process reform would be a priority for the remainder of her term, which ends in 2025, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala replied: “Absolutely. that we can achieve this.”

He made these comments in his address to the World Government Summit.

The WTO’s trade dispute arbitration system, which adjudicates major disputes, has stalled for more than two years due to Trump-era freezes on the appointment of arbitrators.

Under President Joe Biden, Washington resisted calls from WTO members to approve the nominations and instead led negotiations on how to restart the WTO’s dispute settlement system.

The United States has criticized the alleged overbreadth and slowness of WTO processes and has vigorously challenged some of its recent rulings against the United States.

Washington is entering the third phase of talks with the countries to reform the troubled arbitration system and aims to have it fully operational by the end of 2024.

“It’s not just the United States that has problems. Developing countries, especially less developed ones, find it difficult and expensive to access the system,” Okonjo-Iweala said.

On Monday, he also reaffirmed that world merchandise trade is expected to grow by 1% in 2023.

“There seem to be glimmers of hope on the horizon,” he said.

(Reporting by Ghaida Ghantous, Writing by Andrew Mills; Editing in Spanish by Flora Gómez)