US Blocks WTO Proposals to Launch Process to Fill Three Appellate Body Slots
The U.S. is blocking proposals to launch a World Trade Organization selection process for new members of the WTO Appellate Body, which currently has two official vacancies on its seven-member panel, according to a Geneva trade official. The body could face a third vacancy when Peter Van den Bossche’s term expires Dec. 11, if the slots remain unfilled. During an Aug. 31 meeting of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), the U.S. raised issue with the fact that Ricardo Ramirez-Hernandez, whose term officially expired on June 30, is still working on three ongoing appeals proceedings with which he is involved, the official said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
The U.S. opposed proposals to launch the selection process pitched by the EU and a group of seven Latin American countries, with the former proposing all three slots to be filled as soon as possible and the latter proposing the selection process to replace Ramirez be launched first. Further complicating issues is the immediate Aug. 1 resignation of Appellate Body member Hyun Chong Kim, prior to appointment as trade minister of South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, the official said. Resignations normally take effect 90 days after submittal of a notice, but the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Understanding requires Appellate Body members to be unaffiliated with any government, so Kim’s resignation took effect immediately.
The U.S. noted that Kim and Ramirez were two of three judges examining an appeal by the EU in a case on EU antidumping duties on fatty alcohol from Indonesia, whose ruling is due to be circulated by the Appellate Body on Sept. 5. “WTO rules require three Appellate Body members to sign off on an appeal ruling, yet it appears that the ruling next week will only be signed by one actual member, an unprecedented situation of which the DSB needed to consider the implications,” the official said. The U.S. during the Aug. 31 DSB meeting said that before launching the selection processes, the first priority should be for the DSB to start discussing how to handle the issuance of rulings by people who aren’t Appellate Body members. Many WTO members voiced concern with the U.S. position, saying that reappointing Appellate Body members and discussing systemic issues shouldn’t be linked.
“Brazil said the US stance ‘made a difficult situation even worse,’ while Mexico and Canada said the continued impasse risks creating a ‘dysfunctional’ situation,” the Geneva official said. “China insisted no linkage should be made between the two issues and that the current situation was ‘severe,’ while Australia said it did not understand the logic of the US argument.” South Korea, Pakistan, Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, New Zealand, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Norway, Cameroon, Chile, Russia and the Dominican Republic also expressed concern about the U.S. stance. However, the U.S. during the Aug. 31 DSB meeting said it had a “number of longstanding concerns, frequently expressed at the DSB” about the need of the DSB to “assert the authority assigned to it, and that members had a responsibility to address these systemic concerns,” the official said.
The U.S. added that “simply moving forward with the selection process(es) risks perpetuating, and leaving unaddressed, the concerns the US believes require the urgent attention of this body.” DSB Chair Juichi Ihara said he is ready to hold an informal open-ended meeting as soon as possible to discuss the U.S.’s concerns, the official said.