Study On The Legal Issues Of The Post-retaliation Procedure Of World Trade Organization

Parties which engaged in the dispute of international trade dispute might still continue toargue in respect of disputes arising from the implementation of retaliation measures even afterthe WTO Dispute Settlement Body has authorized some of them to implement a suspension ofconcessions, this kind of argument is regarded as the post-retaliation dispute. The DSU hasalready set a group of procedures and rules to guarantee the retaliation to be a strict temporaryrelief measure, it should only be implemented through multilateral authorization according tothe DSU. However, there is no rule to regulate the post-retaliation procedure. The case ofUS/Canada Continued-Suspension highlighted the incomplete parts of the DSU. TheAppellate Body tried to make up the incomplete parts of the DSU by explaining the existingprovisions of DSU. The efforts of Appellate Body helped to improve the DSU,whereas it alsoleaded to some arguments because it ignored the ongoing WTO negotiation and explained theprovisions beyond its original terms.Improving the post-retaliation procedure has always been an theoretical hot topic induring the negotiation of WTO Dispute Settlement mechanism.Based on the systematicanalysis of typical case, this thesis will explain the legal issues of the post-retaliationprocedure, including the specific conditions to terminate the retaliation,the appropriateprocedure to arbitrate the conformance of members’ acts with the judgments of DSB, theburden of proof in the post-retaliation procedure.This thesis contains28thousand words and is divided into three parts,disregarding theintroduction and epilogue.Section I: an overview of the WTO retaliation provisions. This section focuses on theorigin and evolution of the WTO retaliation provisions. By a comparative way, the authorconcludes the feature of WTO retaliation provisions.Section II: the legal issues of the post-retaliation procedure. By combining the report ofthe Appellate Body of US/Canada Continued-Suspension,the author will analysis the legalissues of the post-retaliation procedure in this section in empirical analysis and case analysisway.Section III:the procedure reform of post-retaliation procedure.This section describes themembers’ recommendations for procedure reform of post-retaliation procedure.It will also describe the mechanical infects of the Appellate Body’s reports to the DSU and the author’ssuggestions to improve the post-retaliation procedure.