The Jakarta Post
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsWTO chief urges Indonesia to join interim mechanism, insists priority reform
WTO reform remained a priority despite related talks moving “much more slowly than we'd like”, WTO chief Okonjo-Iweala told reporters on Tuesday.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
The engraved logo of the World Trade Organization is seen on Oct. 29, 2026, on one of the twin columns at the entrance to the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. (JP/Ruth Dea Juwita)
W
orld Trade Organization director general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has suggested that Indonesia join an interim mechanism for resolving trade disputes while defending the organization's dispute settlement system despite the paralysis of its Appellate Body.
Okonjo-Iweala noted that WTO members continued to address trade concerns through committees, bilateral negotiations and dispute panels even as the body remained unable to hear appeals, leaving some rulings in legal limbo.
“The biggest, most frustrating myth [is] that the system is not functioning; it is,” she told reporters at a roundtable interview on Tuesday, ahead of the 2026 Global Review of Aid for Trade at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
“I think why people are very concerned, and they should be, is because if you get a judgement against you, you can appeal, and because that is not functioning, it goes into the void.”
Read also: WTO reform talks coming to the crunch
The Appellate Body has been unable to hear appeals since 2019 after the United States blocked new appointments to the body, alleging it had overstepped its mandate. Member countries have continued to bring their disputes to the organization despite the body's paralysis, with 55 new cases recorded as of October, according to WTO data.
As the organization works to resolve the impasse, Okonjo-Iweala urged Indonesia to join the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), an alternative mechanism established in 2020 by members including China, Brazil and the European Union.
