WTO hits road block over advancing dispute reform talks

The World Trade Organization is struggling to find an ambassador to lead negotiations on fixing its hobbled dispute system by the year-end, trade sources said. The commitment to continue such efforts in 2024 was one of the few concrete outcomes at the WTO Abu Dhabi meeting last month which has some minor successes but failed to deliver on major global deals.

The World Trade Organization is struggling to find an ambassador to lead negotiations on fixing its hobbled dispute system by the year-end, trade sources said.

The commitment to continue such efforts in 2024 was one of the few concrete outcomes at the WTO Abu Dhabi meeting last month which has some minor successes but failed to deliver on major global deals. The talks are aimed at agreeing reforms to the WTO's top appeals court, known as the Appellate Body, which has been idle since 2019 due to U.S. blockages of judge appointments. The lack of an Appellate Body has left dozens of trade disputes worth billions of dollars unresolved.

But days before the Abu Dhabi meeting, the talks' previous facilitator Marco Molina from Guatemala who has been widely praised for developing a new interest-based negotiating method was dismissed by his government. The global trade watchdog had hoped to propose a replacement at its General Council meeting on Thursday but three ambassadors declined, trade sources said.

"It's a lot of work and this is very difficult to land so it's fair enough they said no," said one WTO delegate, who is not authorised to speak publicly on the talks. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai ruled out an agreement on fixing the appeals system in Abu Dhabi but praised progress to date in an interview last month. "We're very pleased and we remain committed," she told Reuters.

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