WTO Dispute Settlements in East Asia

Abstract

East Asian countries have become much more active in utilizing the WTO dispute settlement system to assert their legal rights. The dispute settlement experience so far for these countries has shown strong tendency of domestic governments to defend economic interest of major industries. Their primary counterparts in trade disputes are still major developed countries such as the United States and the European Communities. Thailand is in some sense peculiar in that it brought disproportionately many complaints to the WTO dispute settlement system while it was hardly challenged by other Members. In contrast to the GATT era, Korea has become legally very aggressive under the WTO system. It is also noted that Japan has been rarely challenged since October 1998. Except for China, most East Asian countries lack the national procedure to link private economic interests to the WTO dispute settlement procedures.

The Evolution of Japan's Aggressive Legalism

“…Since then, only one Japanese measure (Apples, WT/DS245) has been challenged. Ahn (2003) suggests that this may have to do with the changing nature of Japan's trade barriers. He argues (p. 14): "[A]fter somewhat intensive probing by other WTO Members in the early WTO years, systemic or legal inconsistency of domestic policy measures or legal systems were mostly addressed and modified to comply with the WTO disciplines.…”

“…Probably it is not very useful in the analysis of Japan's aggressive legalism. Ahn (2003) Japan under the WTO dispute settlement system, after initiated by positive determination under the Section 301 proceeding, substantially strengthened the Japanese government's position concerning its domestic trade policies. Typically, Japan has been vulnerable to blame for its convoluted non-tariff barriers.…”