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This article briefly examines the developing jurisprudence of the new WTO dispute settlement system as expressed in the Appellate reports of the first three and one-third years. It suggests some tentative generalizations about the Appellate Body approach, including a possible greater spirit of deference to national government regulatory decisions, to allow greater margins of leeway for those decisions than sometimes indicated in first-level panel reports or in later-year GATT panel reports. The author also notes some constitutional dangers of a tendency for the WTO diplomacy to rely too heavily on the dispute system to correct the many ambiguities and gaps in the new trading system Uruguay Round texts.

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When the WTO's Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) came into force in 1994, it was widely regarded as an important advance over the dispute settlement regime that had prevailed under the GATT. Perhaps the most important changes were the creation of a standing Appellate Body, to which member states were given the right to appeal any adverse decision of a dispute settlement panel, and the implementation of automaticity, allowing for the automatic adoption of panel reports unless the member states unanimously choose to block it. After nearly seven years' experience with the DSU, the member states, at the Fourth Ministerial Conference in November 2001 in Doha, Qatar, agreed to conduct negotiations on improvements and clarifications of the Dispute Settlement Understanding. What the member states will regard as needed improvements to the DSU will reflect their view of the deficiencies of the DSU as it currently exists. In turn, the member states' perceptions of existing DSU deficiencies will be based on their experiences with the DSU thus far.

The Dispute Settlement Body's (DSB) record in achieving compliance with its decisions will be regarded by many as an important - perhaps the most important - datum in assessing the effectiveness of the current DSU. After briefly describing the main elements of the Dispute Settlement Understanding, this paper offers a few cautionary notes concerning the enterprise of drawing conclusions about the effectiveness of the DSU on the basis of the experience thus far with compliance with panel and AB decisions.

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This article provides comments on a paper by Professors Robert L. Howse and Donald H. Regan entitled 'The Product/Process Distinction - An Illusory Basis for Disciplining 'Unilateralism' in Trade Policy'. The author suggests that, despite Howse and Regan's comment, there is a textual basis for the product/process distinction in the GATT/WTO, citing the word 'product', which occurs in various provisions of the WTO agreements, and cases interpreting such text; but, of course, this basis is subject to interpretation. He submits that an analogy between domestic and international cases does not work well, because the WTO institutional framework differs from that of a national court system. The question, according to this author, is how to prevent abuses if one abandons the product/process distinction or otherwise opens the possibility of trade-restricting measures tied to process of production. He concludes that the product/process distinction remains useful because it is a bright-line rule, but he agrees that such distinction should not be too rigid. The real question, still to be addressed, is how far to relax the distinction and in what areas.

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This article surveys the history and background of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) accession to the GATT and the WTO, and analyzes US domestic laws affecting the PRC's accession to the WTO. United States domestic law, known as the Jackson-Vanik amendment, is a legal obstacle to a full WTO relationship between the United States and the PRC, because it requires annual review of the PRC's most-favored nation (MFN) trade status (since 1998 termed 'normal trade relations' status). Recognizing the United States must extend permanent MFN treatment to the PRC to avail itself of all rights under the WTO with respect to the PRC, this article explores the ways in which the US Congress has previously extended permanent MFN treatment to countries subject to the Jackson-Vanik amendment. This article also takes note of proposed US legislation with respect to the PRC's entry into the WTO. Finally, this article concludes that the US Congress plays an important and probably decisive role in ensuring that the United States and the PRC enjoy a full WTO relationship.