Research On WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism

The WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism, which is based on the《Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes》(DSU) concluded in Uruguay Round, has been considered as one of the most significant achievements in Uruguay Round. Compared to the GATT Dispute Settlement Mechanism, the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism is better and more effective and thus provides a powerful support for the operation of the WTO multilateral trade system. However, the 12 years running of the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism shows that the developing countries face many obstacles when using it to protect their interests. Hence, a reform of the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism is not only an important theoretical problem but also a practical one as for developing countries. The reform is necessary in order to make sure developing countries can in deed use the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism with equity and effectiveness.Actually, developing countries have already known clearly the possible difficulties they might face in dispute settlement, and they have done untiring efforts to strive for their own fair opportunity during the evolution of the GATT/WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism, which results in the special. and differential treatments granted to them in DSU. While these special and differential treatments do not play a role as expected. The general rules of DSU also place more burdens on developing countries than they do on developed countries.This dissertation argues that the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism does not fully take into account the needs of developing countries through the deep analysis of the difficulties developing countries face during the dispute settlement process. This deserves the special attention paid to by developing countries. Accordingly, with regard to how to make developing countries actually use the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism with equity and effectiveness, this dissertation gives several proposals as well in the hope of making some sense to the developing countries like China.