Thorn on the WTO & Dispute Settlement

DTB AgriTrade policy expert Craig Thorn discussed the importance of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its dispute settlement system for addressing distortions in the global rice market with USA Rice VP of International Trade Peter Bachmann on The Rice Stuff podcast. Listen to the podcast to hear about the current status of the WTO, prospects for negotiations, and the dispute settlement crisis in the context of U.S. industry concerns about India’s compliance with the WTO Agreement on Agriculture.

“If the threat of…binding litigation goes away, then those rules become less effective. Not totally ineffective because taking litigation, even under a system where you don’t have a functioning appellate body and can’t get to the point where you can threaten retaliation, that does have a political effect. One of the reasons you go into the US government and say ‘we need your help because India or this country or that country violated its WTO obligations’ is because when you’re able to make that case, [you have the best way] to get the attention of US trade policy officials and it becomes politically important. It highlights the issue in bilateral dealings with that country, so the rules would still have some effect but not the same kind of effect as it would under a system where you have binding dispute settlement and countries feel the weight of potential litigation.”

Craig Thorn, Partner, DTB AgriTrade