Paraphrasing¡¡(Briefing)

Main idea of the passage£º

In this passage, the author describes in detail the WTO dispute settlement system, how it works, and what its implications, merits, and weaknesses are, and also cites criticism about its adjudication and its remedies. At the end the author concludes that, while the WTO dispute settlement system has a lot of good experience to offer to other international institutions and treaties, its practice of authorizing sanctions should not be copied, as they do not contribute much to the correction of non-compliance.

Structure of the passage£º

The passage can be divided into five parts, the first paragraph being the first part, paragraph 2 to paragraph 9 being the second part, paragraph 10 to paragraph 18 the third part, paragraph 19 to paragraph 26 the fourth part, and the last paragraph the fifth part.

The first part is the introduction of the passage, introducing the topic of what experience the WTO dispute settlement mechanism can offer to other international institutions for the purpose of correcting non-compliance.

The second part tells the reader how the WTO dispute settlement system works, its implications, merits and weaknesses.

The third part tells the reader about the criticisms of WTO adjudication, among which one is that the Appellate Body is too activist in reversing panels, another is that the Appellate Body does not show enough deference to national government decisions, and still another is that Appellate Body is too willing to decide ambiguous points of law.

The fourth part tells the reader about the criticisms of WTO remedies ¨C a finding of violation can lead to a trade sanction if the scofflaw government does not comply. However, the sanctions do not necessarily lead to compliance, and the high rate of compliance with WTO decisions is the result of the integrity of the dispute settlement system.

In the fifth part the author concludes that while the WTO trade dispute settlement system has a lot to offer to other international institutions, its practice of sanctions should not be copied and should eventually be removed from the WTO, considering their limited effect.