1. Is it appropriate and justifiable for any country to ignore the processes outlined by the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the WTO and the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU)?
2. When will ignoring the WTO DSB and DSU be justifiable, if any?
Dear Thomas,
the WTO rules are only applying to the 164 member states.
All members must apply the WTO and DSU rules.
When a country loses its case the country must change the non-complying rules and laws. It it does not change the rules or laws the winning country may isue counterveilling measures that can sum up to a full trade law.
This may only be justifyable when the industry is of the highest importance for the economy....
Best,
Carsten
Every member must respect DSB and DSU. It doesn't mean that all countries respect WTO's rules because 1- violations must be known with sufficiant evidences 2- The country may prefer to negotiate separatly or even "laisser-faire" for diplomatic reasons or because to deal with complaints is costly.
Frequently, when a country is "condemned" it may delay the implementation of WTO's decisions or negotiate an agreement with the complainant.
I share the views expressed here by other colleagues. Sometimes, some States try to “gain” time and they use the system as a strategy knowing that, in the end, the only thing they will have to do is to introduce legislation to make its rules WTO compatible but not to pay compensation for what they did In the first instance.
Thanks for all the insightful responses.
I however sometimes wonder whether the stipulations in the DSU and mechanisms for operations in the DSB are quite useful, knowing that states can actually deliberately violate laid down principles with the intention of "gaining" more time.