Negotiations to improve and clarify the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) are effectively on hold, according to trade diplomats who attended the 24 October session of the Dispute Settlement Body Special Session (DSB-SS).
Delegates reported that more pressing areas of the ongoing talks, such as agriculture, non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and services have drawn Members’ attention away from the Doha-mandated DSU review. This was reinforced at the meeting when the sponsors of a proposal on special and differential treatment (S&D) indicated that they would be unable to initiate a discussion on it until after the WTO’s December Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, because their resources would be dedicated to other issues until then.
As in past meetings, Chair Ambassador David Spencer of Australia reiterated that delegates need to focus on a text to be submitted to ministers in Hong Kong. No such text has been drafted thus far, and any eventual report is not expected to contain substantive issues. A compilation of Members’ proposals has been put together, but it is only meant for use in discussions in the DSB-SS and is not likely to be submitted to the Ministerial Conference. In the end, the report from the Chair that is eventually presented in Hong Kong may simply be a description of discussions that have taken place in the group.
The next meeting of the DSB-SS has been scheduled for 14 November. Delegates do not anticipate that it will prove to be very substantial. However, they are not ruling out the possibility that acceleration in the other negotiating areas might lead to an increased focus on the DSU review. Nevertheless, expectations for progress on the matter at Hong Kong remain very low. ICTSD reporting.