[20191216]LSB10385_世贸组织上诉机构失去法定人数：这是“基于规则的交易系统”终结的开始吗？ .pdf

CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i The WTOs Appellate Body Loses Its Quorum: Is This the Beginning of the End for the “Rules-Based Trading System”? December 16, 2019 Some trade practitioners, scholars, and other observers regard the multilateral World Trade Organizations (WTOs) dispute settlement mechanism as the “crown jewel” of the international rules-based trading system. The WTOs architects believed that the enforceability of WTO rules through the dispute settlement mechanism, with the opportunity for appeal to the WTOs Appellate Body to resolve inconsistent dispute settlement panel interpretations, would further the stability and predictability of the multilateral trading system and avoid tit-for-tat trade retaliation, benefiting the global economy. On December 11, 2019, however, the Appellate Body lost its quorum of three members necessary for the Body to decide appeals of WTO dispute settlement panel decisions. Because of this, the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) (i.e., the committee composed of all WTO Members that oversees the dispute settlement mechanism) can no longer adopt panel reports in line with the WTOs Und