The Appellate Body of the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...

(WTOAB) is a standing body of seven persons that hears appeals from reports issued by panels in disputes brought on by WTO members. The WTOAB can uphold, modify or reverse the legal findings and conclusions of a panel, and Appellate Body Reports, once adopted by the

Dispute Settlement Body The Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) makes decisions on trade disputes between governments that are adjudicated by the Organization. Its decisions generally match those of the Dispute Panel. Institutional stru ...

(DSB), must be accepted by the parties to the dispute. The WTOAB has its seat in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. It has been termed by at least one journalist as "effectively the supreme court of world trade".

History

The WTOAB was established in 1995 under Article 17 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU).

Blocking of adjudicator appointments

Under the mandate of the Trump administration, the US held up appointments to the WTOAB.

David Walker (diplomat) David Walker is a New Zealand diplomat. He is a chartered accountant, and has served since 2017 as the New Zealand ambassador and permanent representative to the WTO. He was nominated to hold the chair of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body The Di ...

was appointed to Chair the WTODSB with the mandate to solve this thorny problem. A journalist said that the delay was an effort to skew arbitration in the favour of the US. On 9 April 2019, US Trade Representative

Robert Lighthizer Robert Emmet Lighthizer (; born October 11, 1947) is an American attorney and government official who served as the United States Trade Representative from 2017 to 2021. After he graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1973, Lighthi ...

said in reference to past adjudications over the policy of zeroing that the WTOAB had been "overreaching", as the government of

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since ...

was punished by the Trump administration over softwood lumber. The Trump defect crystallised on 11 December 2019. In default of an WTOAB adjudication board, the EU and Canada reached an agreement whereby the WTOAB is replicated as closely as possible. Under this agreement, former WTO judges will hear appeals between the two entities after the Trump defect has been crystallized. The Trump administration has repeatedly pleaded for redress and is using the leverage at its disposal.

Multiparty Interim Appeal Arbitration

In March 2020, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

and 15 other WTO members agreed to a ''Multiparty Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement'' (MPIA). This created an alternative appellate body while the official WTO body is not functional. It mirrors the usual WTO appeal rules and can be voluntarily used between any WTO members to resolve disputes. The

European Commissioner for Trade The European Commissioner for Trade (sometimes referred to as the ''EU Trade Commissioner'') is the member of the European Commission responsible for the European Union's common commercial policy. Responsibilities The Commissioner heads up the ...

Phil Hogan Phil Hogan (born 4 July 1960) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as European Commissioner for Trade between 2019 and 2020, and previously European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development between 2014 and 2019. He previously ...

said: "This is a stop-gap measure to reflect the temporary paralysis of the WTO's appeal function for trade disputes ... We will continue our efforts to restore the appeal function of the WTO dispute settlement system as a matter of priority." Since being announced, the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

and other WTO member nations have joined the MPIA. A pool of ten arbitrators were announced on 31 July 2020 marking the operational start of the MPIA. The arbitrators appointed were José Alfredo Graça Lima (

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

) Valerie Hughes (

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

), Alejandro Jara (

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

), Guohua Yang (

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

), Claudia Orozco (

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

), Joost Pauwelyn ( EU), Mateo Diego-Fernandez Andrade (

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

), Penelope Ridings (

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

), Locknie Hsu (

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

), and Thomas Cottier (

Members

The following is a list of members of the WTOAB including their nationality and term of office.Appellate Body Members
WTO

Current

There are currently no Members of the Appellate Body. See '' Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration'' for an alternative arrangement used by some WTO member nations and list of appointed arbitrators.

* Hong Zhao (lawyer), , 1 December 2016 — 30 November 2020 * Hyun Chong Kim, , 2016 — 2017 * Shree Baboo Chekitan Servansing, , 2014 — 2018 * Seung Wha Chang, , 2012 — 2016
Thomas R. Graham
, 2011 — 2015 & 2015 — 2019 * Ujal Singh Bhatia, , 2011 — 2015 & 2015 — 2019 * Peter Van den Bossche, , 2009 — 2013 & 2013 — 2017 * Ricardo Ramírez-Hernández, , 2009 — 2013 & 2013 — 2017 * Yuejiao Zhang, , 2008 — 2012 & 2012 — 2016
Shotaro Oshima
, 2008 — 2012 * Lilia R Bautista, , 2007 — 2011 * Jennifer A. Hillman, , 2007 — 2011 * David Unterhalter, , 2006 — 2009 & 2009 — 2013 * Merit E. Janow, , 2003 — 2007 * Luiz Olavo Baptista, , 2001 — 2005 & 2005 — 2009 * Giorgio Sacerdoti, , 2001 — 2005 & 2005 — 2009 * John Lockhart (lawyer), , 2001 — 2005 & 2005 — 2006 * Arumugamangalam Venkatachalam Ganesan, , 2000 — 2004 & 2004 — 2008 * Georges Michel Abi-Saab, , 2000 — 2004 & 2004 — 2008 * Yasuhei Taniguchi, , 2000 — 2003 & 2003 — 2007 * James Bacchus, , 1995 — 1999 & 1999 — 2003 * Claus-Dieter Ehlermann, , 1995 — 1997 & 1997 — 2001 * Julio Lacarte Muró, , 1995 — 1997 & 1997 — 2001 *

Florentino Feliciano Florentino Panlilio Feliciano (1928–2015) was the 115th Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Before serving as a judge of the Philippines' highest court from 1986 to 1995, he had a long career as a corporate lawyer and leg ...

, , 1995 — 1997 & 1997 — 2001 * Christopher Beeby, , 1995 — 1999 & 1999 — 2000 * Said El-Naggar, , 1995 — 1999 & 1999 — 2000 * Mitsuo Matsushita, , 1995 — 1999 & 1999 — 2000

References

External links

Appellate Body on WTO website

*Jens Lehne
Crisis at the WTO: Is the Blocking of Appointments to the WTO Appellate Body by the United States Legally Justified?
Berlin/Bern 2019 World Trade Organization International trade law Foreign direct investment Organizations established in 1995 Treaties entered into force in 1995 {{trade-stub