Today's Wall Street Journal had a story by Scott Miller on the WTO dispute resolution procedures.
The Journal site requires a subscription, but this evening I found a copy of the story at another newspaper site: Airplane battle spotlights power of a quirky court (June 1, via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
The story is generally critical of the process. The trade disputes can affect millions of people and billions of dollars, but judges are often moonlighting from other jobs, may have little experience ruling in complex trade cases, are overwhelmed with submissions, are trying to find meaning in text that has often been left deliberately ambiguous, and have few precedents to guide them.
The WTO is a small organization, underfunded for the tasks it's being given. A lot of the issues Miller raises probably reflect this.
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