The European Union and 11 partners unveiled a set of reforms on Monday that seek to end the impasse in the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement body, the European Commission said in a statement.
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2018) The European Union and 11 partners unveiled a set of reforms on Monday that seek to end the impasse in the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement body, the European Commission said in a statement.The package, co-authored by Australia, Canada, China, Iceland, India, New Zealand, Mexico, Norway, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland, will streamline the appointment of new judges, currently blocked by the United States. This has led to a backlog in the cases heard.
"Together with a broad coalition of WTO members, we are presenting our most concrete proposals yet for WTO reform. I hope that this will contribute to breaking the current deadlock, and that all WTO members will take responsibility equally," Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom was quoted as saying.
The countries propose expanding the panel of judges from seven to nine and increasing their term to eight years. New rules will ensure that selection starts automatically when a post is vacant and allow appellate members to stay on to see the disputes through to the end.
