Efforts to reform the WTO will continue.Ottawa-The World Trade Organization has suffered a grievous blow but it's a long way from being dead and efforts to reform it may yet bear fruit, says Valerie Hughes, a former WTO and senior Canadian government official.The United States has effectively shut down the WTO's Appellate Body that has the final say in international trade disputes by blocking appointments to it. The action has led to calls for Canada to resume its campaign to reform the WTO.While the Appellate Body will almost certainly be replaced in time, the new version of it will be different, said Hughes, who now is a senior counsel with the Ottawa law firm Bennett Jones.The WTO first level panels will continue to operate for the foreseeable future, she said in a recent article on the firm's web page. “In fact, the panel level has never been busier in 25 years of WTO dispute settlement.“Currently, there are over 30 panels working to resolve disputes brought by 19 different WTO Members. Most active cases involve trade remedies (anti-dumping, subsides, safeguards), while others address measures affecting trade in goods, trade in services, and trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights.”For all its complaints about the WTO, the U.S. “has used the system frequently and effectively, bringing 124 cases, more than any other WTO Member,” Hughes said. Despite claims by President Trump to the contrary, the United States has won the vast majority of its cases, including a notable complaint earlier this year against China.While some countries will appeal the panel reports to the non-functioning Appellate Body to avoid dealing with them, Hughes said, “this is unlikely to be the usual course.”In the past countries appealed 70 percent of panel reports “because it was an automatic right and it was always worth another kick at the can, especially because retaliation is not retroactive according to WTO rules.”She doubts countries will do that while “we await the reinstatement or reformulation of WTO appellate review. To do so would undermine the very dispute settlement system that Members have confidence in and use regularly even if they would like to see some improvements to its processes and procedures.”Canada, the European Union and Norway have agreed on an interim appeal arbitration arrangement whereby any appeals among them will be heard by three former members of the Appellate Body serving as arbitrators. They hope other countries “will sign on to this arrangement for their own cases.”Even with the Appellate Body headed into limbo, countries launched 18 new trade actions this year, “presumably because they believed the dispute settlement system would still be able to bring concrete results.”WTO rules were developed “to create a system that would strengthen the world economy in order to foster more trade, investment, employment and income growth throughout the world,” she said.Surveys show that many if not most countries favour a two-tiered dispute settlement mechanism and a group of them including Canada are working to create a replacement for the Appellate Body, she said.Hughes said countries “will want to keep the WTO dispute settlement process running because, frankly, there is no other system that offers the option of legal resolution.“For example, Canada has no other avenue for pursuing its dispute against China regarding the stoppage of canola shipments, nor for its dispute against the United States regarding softwood lumber duties.”“The WTO dispute settlement mechanism is the best, if not the only, option for many WTO Members to seek to resolve disputes covering all manner of trade irritants,” she said. “The WTO dispute settlement mechanism is too good to lose or let fall into disuse, and Members will act accordingly.”Hughes has served as counsel for the federal government before WTO panels and the Appellate Body, as an adjudicator in WTO disputes, and as the only person to have both Director of the WTO's Legal Affairs Division and Director of its Appellate Body Secretariat (2001-05). During that time, she was involved in more than 70 WTO disputes.Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.