The WTO: Governance, Dispute Settlement, and Developing Countries
This capacious volume is the product of a conference at Columbia University of lawyers, economists, former officials, and others interested in the fine detail of the law and its practice at the World Trade Organization. Although the WTO has received most of its public attention as the host for the now-stalled and possibly failed Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, in fact it is constantly at work adjudicating and attempting to resolve trade disputes among its 150 member states. Some of this book is of course devoted to the Doha Round and to the interests of developing countries in the world trading system, but two-thirds is devoted to a discussion of the crucial issue of trade-dispute settlement: how it works, how much disputants comply with the WTO's rulings, the current deficiencies in the process, and proposals for improvement -- most of which topics generate reasoned disagreement. This compendium is a useful introduction and reference for anyone interested in world trade law. An appendix lists all of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade's and the WTO's disputesettlement cases and reports through mid-2007.
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