WTO Disputes

Drawing on the firm’s global resources, Sidley is the only firm providing WTO legal services from offices in Geneva, Washington, D.C. and Brussels. Our team of professionals assists companies, governments, and trade associations worldwide on the enforcement of the complex web of global trading rules regulating international commerce. The WTO is at the center of that web, and is also at the center of our trade team’s practice.

Sidley’s WTO practitioners:

assist business, trade association, and government clients facing market access barriers or unfair conditions of competition in foreign markets by successfully integrating WTO arguments into their advocacy with governments;
counsel private and government clients on strategies for enforcing WTO commitments through WTO dispute settlement, including analyzing WTO law, preparing claims and defenses, and appearing as counsel or supporting government counsel in all procedural phases of proceedings before the WTO panels and the Appellate Body; and
advise clients on structuring transactions and investments to take account of WTO law as interpreted through jurisprudence.

WTO Dispute Settlement

More than 500 complaints have been brought to the WTO’s dispute settlement system since its establishment in 1995. These cases have generated a body of law and practice as sophisticated as any specialized area of domestic law. While in private practice, or in earlier service with Member Governments and the WTO Secretariat, members of Sidley’s WTO team have been involved in almost half of these disputes – more than any other law firm. Our experience means that we have mastered not only the substance of the WTO rules, but also the procedures involved in WTO settlement. Our WTO litigators have been involved in every procedural phase of WTO dispute settlement – from consultations, to panel and Appellate Body proceedings, and from implementation challenges, to arbitration regarding retaliatory measures. We have a broad-based practice that includes representation of WTO Members as complainants, respondents, and third parties, in dispute settlement proceedings.

For example, our professionals have served recently as counsel to:

The Government of China in support of its WTO challenge concerning the United States’ use of targeted dumping and non-market economy methodologies in anti-dumping proceedings, United States – Anti-Dumping Methodologies (China).
Airbus S.A.S., commercial stakeholders standing behind the European Union, in the subsidies disputes, European Communities – Measures Affecting Trade in Large Civil Aircraft and United States – Measures Affecting Trade in Large Civil Aircraft;
The U.S. biotechnology industry in a WTO dispute with the European Union and its member states on their ongoing failure to process applications for approval of new agricultural biotech products, European Communities – Measures Affecting the Marketing and Approval of Biotech Products;
The Government of Norway in support of a comprehensive challenge to an EC anti-dumping determination regarding farmed salmon from Norway, European Communities – Anti-Dumping Measure on Farmed Salmon from Norway;
AT&T in support of the United States’ challenge to Mexican market access and anti-competitive restrictions on international long distance telecommunications services, Mexico – Measures Affecting Telecommunications Services;
The Government of Brazil:
- in support of a WTO challenge against U.S. domestic support and export subsidies for upland cotton and a host of other agricultural products, United States – Subsidies for Upland Cotton; and
- in defense of a challenge by the European Union to import measures regarding retreaded tyres, Brazil - Measures Affecting the Import of Retreaded Tyres;
Anheuser-Busch in support of a challenge by the United States to the European Union’s regulation on the protection of geographical indications, European Communities – Protection of Trademarks and Geographical Indications for Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs; and
A WTO Member in several WTO proceedings concerning the United States’ use of the “zeroing” policy in anti-dumping proceedings.

For a more extensive, representative list of WTO cases in which Sidley lawyers have been involved, see below. For a list of WTO publications, click here.

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