The WTO Dispute Settlement Procedures : A Preliminary Appraisal

It is now obvious that the launch of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was quite successful. After coming into force on 1 January 1995, the WTO has 123 members (as of 31 July 1996), and the numbers are climbing: there are about 30 more nations negotiating for membership. The WTO and the Uruguay Round evolved from almost 50 years of history under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), yet the arguably minimal change that this new WTO institutional framework represents does have profound implications (Jackson 1995a, 11-31; House Doc. No. 316). It embraces the so-called ‘‘single package’’ idea, which requires every nation to accept all agreements (or at least 95 percent of them; see note 1). This contrasts with prior rounds, such as the Tokyo Round, where nations could pick and choose among protocol agreements (a process called ‘‘GATT (à la carte’’). Overall, the Uruguay Round is a huge package that many governments, including some of the most advanced and developed, most surely do not entirely understand. Certain texts involve new concepts for international treaty obligations, including novel obligations regarding trade in services and intellectual property. In addition, many of the clauses in the Uruguay Round, both in the new texts and in the revision of old texts, are quite general and ambiguous, a natural result of a large negotiation with so many participants. This suggests an even greater enhanced importance for dispute settlement, because it is through this process that many of these