A brief introduction to countermeasures in the WTO dispute settlement system

The Scandinavian sagas of the early Middle Ages portrayed Iceland as a state without central coercive authority where judgements or awards were often enforced through mediation and, ultimately, the taking of hostages. In this respect, today’s WTO community still very much looks like Iceland ten centuries ago. There is no ‘WTO police’ to send trade ministers to jail if they do not comply with recommendations and rulings of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), the political entity supervising the WTO dispute settlement system.