Thank you very much, Mr. Carrie.

That's a really good question, and it's so interesting, because 2024 does seem like a long time away.

As I'm sure you would know, in any negotiation—but certainly in multilateral negotiations—what seems like a very long time often ends up being a very short time in which to get over 160 members of the organization to come to consensus, so there's that.

Maybe what I'll do is say three things about the dispute settlement body, and in particular the appellate body, and the holdup.

Number one, you are absolutely 100% correct that the reason we are where we are with the the dispute settlement body and the appellate body is indeed that the United States, for some time now, has been blocking the appointment of panellists to the appellate body, which renders it not functional.

Number two, I would say that it's important to note that members have put together an alternate structure—if I could call it that—under the leadership of Canada, called “the multi-party interim arrangement”, or MPIA. I was trying to think of what the acronym actually means, because all we do is use the acronym here. That allows a group of members to use an appellate mechanism among themselves when and if the need to appeal a case comes up.

I think that's important to note, because it is not the case that disputes are not allowed to be heard and that if there is a need to appeal, there is absolutely no mechanism through which to do that. We do have this interim appeal mechanism that Canada has spearheaded and pioneered, which does provide us with an interim solution.

Number three, I agree with you that if we could get the United States to stop blocking panellists tomorrow, we would absolutely do that. Right now, what is happening here in Geneva is what I'll call a very thoughtful and inclusive process that is actually spearheaded by the United States—which is good news, since it means they're engaged—to bring together the membership to discuss what the issues are with the appellate body system and how we can move to address them in time for this 2024 deadline.

That process started in September and is in the sort of ideas-gathering phase. Then, starting in January, members are actually going to sit down, look at all of the ideas that have been put forward and see how we can put forward concrete proposals based on those ideas put forward by members.

The hope very much is that sometime before March 2024, we will indeed have come to a place where ministers will be able to sanction—to bless—whatever result will bring us to having a fully functioning dispute settlement system, which would include the ability to appeal by the entire membership, and not necessarily just by this interim solution that Canada has spearheaded.