WTO Consensus Decision Making in Action

November 22nd, 2007 • Economics, Law, Political

Taiwan is stopping the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body from appointing new judges to its Appellate Body, one of whom is Chinese. It seems to be in response to moves from China to get the WTO to downgrade the status of Taiwan’s membership. Taiwan is part of the WTO as a tariff territory rather than a sovereign state, but rarely exercises its powers. This is an interesting example of the decision making process of the WTO which requires consensus from all Members. Thus if even one Member such as Taiwan objects the decision isn’t made.

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Tags: china, consensus, dsb, International, politics, taiwan, Trade, wto

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