Launching the Appellate Body

In terms of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), the creation of the Appellate Body can be considered a major departure from what had existed in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) before it was absorbed by the WTO. Certainly, the Uruguay Round yielded extremely significant changes from past practice, such as Article 23 forbidding the taking of unilateral action by any member of the WTO, or the provision on consensus, which eliminated the possibility that previously existed in the GATT whereby any contracting party could block any stage in the dispute settlement process. These two decisions transformed the system radically, resolving past uncertainties and ensuring an orderly and prompt adjudication of all cases submitted to panels and the Appellate Body.