WTO Case Review 2018

This WTO Case Review is the 19th in our annual series on substantive international trade adjudications issued by the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization. Each Review explains and comments on Appellate Body Reports adopted by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) during the preceding calendar year (January 1st through December 31st), excluding decisions on compliance with recommendations contained in previously adopted reports.In this year's Review, we cover one case, Brazil – Certain Measures Concerning Taxation and Charges, which was issued in 2018, and normally might have been adopted at the December 18, 2018 DSB meeting, following its issuance on December 13th. Possibly, because of conflict over WTO dispute settlement reform, the DSB did not adopt it until January 11, 2019. The future of the multilateral dispute settlement system is in doubt. With uncertainty as to whether there will be future Appellate Body decisions to review in 2019 and beyond, we thought it best to include the Brazil Taxes case now