Developing countries in the WTO on Monday sought a freer hand to hit back at rich states in trade rows, saying current rules were stacked against them.
All states can ask the WTO for permission to impose sanctions on a fellow member who, after losing a trade dispute in the Geneva-based body, fails to remedy the problem quickly.
But developing states say that poorer countries are deterred from retaliating against richer and stronger trade partners by the high legal costs involved and by limits imposed by the WTO on how sanctions can be levied.
"The tremendous imbalance in the trade relations between developed and developing countries places severe constraints on the ability of developing countries to exercise their rights," said Pakistan's envoy to the world trade body.
Pakistan, speaking on behalf of eight other countries, including India, Cuba and Malaysia, said rich states that lost a case at the WTO should be forced to pay part of the plaintiff's costs.
The proposal was put to a session of a special negotiating committee studying reform of the WTO's disputes settlement body (DSB), its trade referee.
Review of the DSB is part of sweeping negotiations to further free up world trade, launched in the Qatari capital, Doha, last November.
Currently, WTO states must impose sanctions on a similar area of the economy to that triggering the initial dispute -- whether it be goods or financial services.
Exceptions can be granted, but negotiating them takes time.
In the biggest-ever case involving retaliation, the EU was given the go-ahead in August for sanctions worth US$4 billion a year on the US in a dispute over tax laws.
But developing countries say the rules are too restrictive and prevent poorer states from defending their interests.
They cite the case of Ecuador which won the right to impose over US$200 million in punitive duties against the EU in a row over bananas.
The South American country never took up the option because it said that by making imports from the EU more expensive, it would simply harm itself and do little damage to the 15-state economic bloc.
Pakistan said that once the WTO had given the green light to retaliate, a developing country should be given full freedom to decide where to strike back.
For a developing country heavily reliant on food imports, there was be no point in levying sanctions on an exporter of farm goods.
"In such situations ... [such sanctions] would not be practical or effective," it said.
There was no immediate reaction from rich states to the plan, one of dozens of proposed reforms to the dispute settlements system which is hailed by some officials as the "jewel in the crown" of the eight-year-old trade body.
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