US seals fate of WTO court —trade officials
Washington blocking appointment of judges
GENEVA—THE fate of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) top court was effectively sealed on Monday after the United States said it would not back a proposal to allow it to continue, trade officials said, although the WTO chief vowed to find a solution.
The Trump administration has been blocking appointments to the WTO’S seven-member appellate body that rules on trade disputes for more than two years, with US officials saying the court had gone beyond its remit.
The appellate body needs a minimum of three judges to function but the terms of two of the three remaining members of the appeals panel expire on Tuesday and there are no replacements in sight because of the US blocking strategy.
Another attempt was made on Monday to reach a consensus on laying down arrangements for filling the vacancies, as well as obliging the appeals panel to issue rulings within 90 days.
But the US ambassador to the WTO, Dennis Shea, said other members had not addressed Washington’s concerns about what he called the court’s “overreach” and “disregard” of WTO rules.
Shea said in a speech, the text of which was released by the US mission, that the United States did not support the proposal to start filling appellate body positions.
Much of the US displeasure stems from how the WTO has tied its hands in dealing with China. In binding rulings, WTO judges have given Beijing the benefit of the doubt on subsidies and rejected Washington’s treatment of dumping.
One Asian ambassador told Reuters: “The United States said it can’t join a consensus. We’ll be writing the obituaries.”
But WTO director-general Roberto Azevedo said that a “well-functioning, impartial and binding dispute settlement system is a core pillar of the WTO system,” adding: “We cannot abandon what must be our priority, namely finding a permanent solution for the appellate body.”
China’s trade ambassador, Zhang Xiangchen, who wore a black tie for the occasion, said: “This is no doubt the most severe blow to the multilateral trading system since its establishment.”
João Aguiar Machado, the European Union’s ambassador, put the blame squarely on Washington.