Deputy USTR Says Large Issues on WTO Revisions Remain Unresolved

Dispute settlement understanding talks among World Trade Organization members has been very "intense," though the large issues remain unresolved, Maria Pagan, deputy U.S. trade representative and chief of mission in the Geneva office, said Nov. 20. Speaking at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the upcoming 13th Ministerial Conference, Pagan said discussions started by acknowledging the different parties' interests as opposed to putting text on the table and hashing out the deal.

As a result, various procedural issues have been resolved but the big-ticket dispute settlement items remain up in the air, Pagan noted. One such item includes the potential reinstatement of the defunct Appellate Body, which Pagan said the U.S. is not supporting. "We can have a perfectly sound dispute settlement system at the WTO or anywhere else with just one tier," the deputy USTR said.

Pagan noted that since February, when the talks began, until now, more progress has been made than in all the series of the WTO's DSU review. However, she noted that no mandate was passed at MC12 requiring dispute settlement to be agreed to by MC13.

Pagan also addressed work on extending the e-commerce moratorium, which the U.S. supports, particularly for its benefits to small and medium enterprises and countries. Despite this support, the deputy USTR complained that one or two holdouts can, and have, derailed further talks on the moratorium.

Elsewhere in her remarks, Pagan discussed the fisheries subsidies deal that passed at MC12, the upcoming accession of Timor-Leste and Comoros to the WTO, and the e-commerce work program. The deputy USTR said there has been a lot of work on the e-commerce work program, including a "series of substantive discussions, particularly on the interests of developing country members."