India has called for establishing a compliance panel under Article 21.5 of the dispute settlement understanding to determine whether the US implemented all the recommendations made by the dispute settlement body. The US is also required to file a status report at WTO’s dispute settlement body (DSB) meeting, which takes place almost every month on whether it has implemented the DSB recommendation. “This is not a minor procedural issue but a serious systemic issue for the dispute settlement mechanism,” India had warned on several times, arguing that “ignoring this aspect would render Article 21.6 ineffective and seriously undermine the surveillance mechanism under the DSU (dispute settlement understanding)”. The US, on its part, had maintained that it has not utilized the WTO-inconsistent domestic law in any probe concerning subsidies and countervailing duties. India disagreed with the US assessment, and pointed out that the issue of non-utilization of a provision of a law is irrelevant in the context of implementation of dispute settlement body recommendations.

Source: Mint April 08, 2018 17:15 UTC