GATT Non-Violation Issues in the WTO Framework: Are They the Achilles' Heel of the Dispute Settlement Process
![handle is hein.journals/hilj39 and id is 317 raw text is: VOLUME 39, NUMBER 2, SPRING 1998
GATT Non-Violation Issues in the
WTO Framework:
Are They the Achilles' Heel of the
Dispute Settlement Process?
Sung-joon Cho*
INTRODUCTION
The current non-violation provisions' under the World Trade Or-
ganization (WTO)2 dispute settlement system present several disad-
vantages, both to panels attempting to resolve disputes under these
provisions and to the WTO system as a whole. These disadvantages
include, inter alia, their inherent ambiguity and the concomitant risk
that they might be misused. Although efforts have been made to
overcome these problems during the half-century history of the General
Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT),3 they continue to persist. The
recent photographic film dispute between the United States and Japan
vividly illustrates many of these problems.
The United States has long complained about the alleged restrictive
business practices against foreign suppliers in the Japanese film market.
These practices, the United States believes, are the main reason for the
* Visiting Scholar, East Asian legal Studies Center, Harvard Law School; LL.B., Seoul National
University, 1989; LL.M., University of Michigan, 1997. I am deeply grateful to Professor John
H. Jackson for his unusual mentorship without which this Article would not have come to light.
I would also like to thank Professors William Alford, Jos6 Alvarez, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and
Joseph Weiler for their inspiration and encouragement. Finally, I dedicate this Comment to my
family, whose love and support make me stand firm.
1. See GATT 1994, infra note 5, art. XXIII, l(b); GATS, infra note 6, art. XXIII, 3.
2. See Marrakech Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, April 15, 1994, Final
Act Embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, RESULTS
OF THE URUGUAY ROUND, 6, 6-18; 33 I.L.M. 1140, 1144-53 (1994) [hereinafter WTO
Agreement]. For a historical background of the creation of the WTO, see generally WORLD
TRADE: TOWARD FAIR AND FREE TRADE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY (Marie Griesgraber &
Bernhard G. Gunter eds., 1997); ASIF H. QURESHI, THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (1996);
BRUCE E. MOON, DILEMMAS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE (1996); PHILIP RAWORTH & LINDA C..
REIF, THE LAW OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION: FINAL TEXT OF THE GATT URUGUAY
ROUND AGREEMENTS (1995).
3. General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, October 30, 1947, T.I.A.S. No. 1700, 55 U.N.T.S.
187 [hereinafter GATT 1947].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hilj39&div=12&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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GATT Non-Violation Issues in the WTO Framework: Are They the Achilles' Heel of the Dispute Settlement Process
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