Wto Dispute Settlement Mechanism Of The Special And Differential Treatment Provisions

The special and differential treatment provisions in the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism stipulate the procedural rights exclusively for developing country Members. Since China has entered the WTO as a developing country, it should make full use of this identity in maximizing its entitled rights. Therefore, it deserves efforts to find out how to best employ the special and differential treatment provisions in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. This article focuses on this topic, and answers the following questions: 1. What are the special and differential treatment provisions in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism? 2. To what extent have these provisions been invoked and carried out in practice? What are the problems and why? 3. How can China best exert these provisions in the process of dispute settlement?The research of this article finds the following suggestions helpful for China to better employ the special and differential treatment provisions in the WTO dispute settlement. First, considering the different stages in the process of the WTO dispute settlement, China should try its best to solve disputes within the consultation stage by using the additional time and means provided by these provisions; use the provisions in the legal stage to strengthen its litigation status and better position itself against those stronger countries; and use them in the implementation stage to win special and differential treatments in the matters of the reasonable period of time for implementation and the way as well. Second, concerning the different features of the provisions, China should invoke those most operative provisions actively in order to bring them into full play; invoke those less operative provisions as much as possible to help increase their practicability by encouraging the formation of established practice or even case precedents; take little consideration of those no more worth invoking, but should actively participate in the review and modification of the Dispute Settlement Understanding, and push the clarification of the current provisions and the legislation of more special and differential treatment provisions.