SPECIAL FEATURE: When China Joins: The Power of WTO Dispute Resolution

When China joins the World Trade Organization (WTO), lawyers and executives dealing with China will need to understand how the WTO dispute resolution process works. There will probably be a large number of Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) cases involving China in the early years of its WTO membership. One of the main reasons for this is the sheer enormity of its rapidly expanding, export-driven economy, as well as its status as a major trading nation. There will be a lot of creases to iron-out.

A good understanding of the WTO dispute settlement process will become more important for those doing business in China when the trading giant joins the WTO. Accordingly, this article looks at how the WTO dispute settlement process works, including an overview of how it differs from the old GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs) dispute settlement regime. After this, it looks at the likely effect of China's WTO accession in relation to the dispute resolution process, as well as likely changes to the WTO dispute settlement process itself.

WTO DISPUTE RESOLUTION