The dispute settlement process consists of consultations, panels and possible appeals, and adoption by the DSB of the resulting panel and appellate reports. The URAA addresses the relationship of WTO agreements to federal and state law and prohibits private remedies based on alleged violations of WTO agreements. In addition, Section 102 of the URAA, as well as its legislative history, indicates that domestic law supersedes any inconsistent provisions of WTO agreements approved and implemented in the URAA and that WTO decisions involving U.S. laws or regulatory actions that are successfully challenged in the WTO do not have direct or automatic legal effect in the United States. Instead, specific congressional or administrative action, as the case may be, is required to implement these WTO decisions. In the event a statute permits implementation consistent with the WTO decision, Congress has specified procedures for agencies to follow in taking administrative action to comply. Congress has additionally stated in the statute that it intends, through the prohibition on private remedies:
to occupy the field with respect to any cause of action or defense under or in connection with any of the Uruguay Round Agreements, including by precluding any person other than the United States from bringing any action against any State or political subdivision thereof or raising any defense to the application of State law under or in connection with any of the Uruguay Round Agreements—(A) on the basis of a judgment obtained by the United States in an action brought under any such agreement; or (B) on any other basis. When faced with such arguments, some federal courts have deemed WTO decisions to be "persuasive" or a source of useful reasoning to inform a court's decision, but have stated that WTO decisions are not binding on the United States, U.S. agencies, or the judiciary. Recent Legislation

Legislation introduced in recent Congresses generally reflected congressional concerns that the WTO Appellate Body had interpreted WTO agreements in an overly broad manner to the detriment of the United States and that the executive branch had in some cases too readily used existing statutory authorities to comply with these decisions, particularly where U.S. trade remedies were involved. Legislation focused particularly on the various WTO disputes in which the U.S. use of zeroing in antidumping proceedings was successfully challenged and the U.S. response to one of the first WTO decisions on this issue, discussed earlier in this report.
Congress has comprehensively dealt with the legal effect of World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements and dispute settlement results in the United States in the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), P.L. 103-465. The act provides that domestic law prevails over conflicting provisions of WTO agreements and prohibits private remedies based on alleged violations of these agreements. As a result, provisions of WTO agreements and WTO panel and Appellate Body reports adopted by the WTO Members that are in conflict with federal law do not have domestic legal effect unless and until Congress or the executive branch, as the case may be, takes action to modify or remove the conflicting statute, regulation, or regulatory action. Violative state laws may be withdrawn by the state or, in rare circumstances, invalidated through legal action by the federal government.
The URAA also contains requirements for agencies to follow where a change in a regulation or the issuance of a new agency determination in a trade remedy proceeding is needed to comply with a WTO decision and existing law may be sufficient to carry out the action.
While the URAA prohibits private rights of action based on Uruguay Round agreements, plaintiffs, in cases brought under other statutes, have argued that the agency actions they are challenging in court are inconsistent with a WTO agreement or a WTO decision and should conform with U.S. WTO obligations. Although courts have deemed WTO decisions to be persuasive, they have also held that they are not binding on the United States, U.S. agencies, or the judiciary, leaving the issue of whether and how the United States complies in a particular WTO proceeding to the executive branch.
Legislation introduced in recent Congresses generally reflected congressional concerns that the WTO Appellate Body had interpreted WTO agreements in an overly broad manner to the detriment of the United States and that the executive branch had in some cases too readily used existing statutory authorities to comply with these decisions, particularly where U.S. trade remedies were involved. Legislation particularly focused on WTO decisions in which the U.S. use of "zeroing" in antidumping proceedings was successfully challenged.