Mandate

In November 2001, at the Doha Ministerial Conference, members agreed to negotiate to improve and clarify the dispute settlement system. The negotiations are not formally part of the single undertaking, which means they are not legally tied to the success or failure of the other negotiations mandated by the declaration.

 

Negotiations

During the negotiations, participants have stressed how well the system has served them as the backbone to the whole multilateral trading system. Nonetheless, they have identified a number of areas for improvement. Issues under discussion are: third party rights, panel composition, remand, mutually agreed solutions, strictly confidential information, sequencing, post-retaliation, transparency and amicus curiae briefs, timeframes, developing country interests including special and differential (S&D) treatment, flexibility and member control, and effective compliance.

 

Find out more

• Dispute settlement negotiations

• Doha declaration

• Doha declaration explained