The Appellate Body of the WTO, in collaboration with the National Law University, Delhi (NLUD), organised a two-day conference on ‘Dispute Settlement System of the WTO’, from the 16th-18th of February, 2017. This was as part of the WTO@20 Conference, and was organised on the University campus. It saw various legal luminaries participating, including Appellate Body members of the WTO, with the likes of Mr. Ujal Singh Bhatia, the current Chairperson, besides others, even from the international sphere. The keynote address was delivered by Mr. Arvind Subramaniam, Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, who delved into various aspects of the current state and prospects of the multilateral trade regime, in India’s context. A round table discussion on ‘The new global politics: Is there space for multilateralism’ followed this, which served as a foundational discussion for the events and discussions yet to come.
Over the span of two days, various panels dealt with various aspects of WTO, including on topics like the participation of developing countries in the WTO system, which has particular relevance to countries like ours. The event saw a host of fruitful discussions happening over this period, and brought out many fresh perspectives relating to arguably the most important international trade body in today’s times, with a mixed look at the past, present, as well as the future, of this institution.
