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House hearing spotlights WTO reform issues: dispute settlement, consensus blocks and Chinas developing-country status
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Summary
Members and witnesses debated options to fix the WTOs stalled negotiating function and broken appellate body, questioned how consensus decision-making and self-designation of developing-country status (notably by China) affect enforcement, and recommended a mix of reforms and outside-WTO strategies.
Lawmakers used the hearing to press witnesses on longstanding institutional problems at the World Trade Organization, including a nonfunctional appellate body, consensus-based decision making that enables holdouts, and the problem of large economies self-identifying as developing countries.
Bruce Hirsch and Kelly Ann Shaw described how the WTOs rulebook and committee work still provide value, but that structural constraints make negotiating new, high-standard rules difficult. Shaw said the United States has pushed for dispute settlement reform for decades and that without a meeting of the minds among members the appellate-body issue remains unresolved. "For 25 years, there was this DSU review process," she testified, adding that the United Statess blocking of appellate appointments was intended to push reform.
Members repeatedly flagged Chinas classification as a developing country as undermining credibility, and witnesses said objective criteria for special and differential treatment should be pursued. Several members asked whether the status quo of an inactive appellate body is preferable to a restored pre-2019 system; witnesses said the system is "broken" now and that careful reform is needed before restoring it fully.
The hearing included discussion of notification and transparency gaps, with witnesses urging stronger notification compliance, technical assistance to developing members, and administrative penalties for repeat noncompliance. Witnesses urged the U.S. to use committee work to build coalitions, and to combine WTO engagement with bilateral and plurilateral tools to pursue reforms the full membership will not accept.
The hearing concluded without committee votes; members requested follow-up written material to probe reform options further.
