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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

WTO future a concern for global finance chiefs

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Antonio RODRIGUEZ -


Global finance chiefs meeting in France have warned that the World Trade Organization’s internal court risks becoming paralysed by a bitter disputes between member states.


Several countries have for years raised concern over the functioning of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body’s appellate division — sometimes called the supreme court of world trade.


But the crisis has reached a breaking point because US President Donald Trump’s administration, which has been bitterly critical of the WTO in general, has blocked the nomination of new judges.


If no judges are approved by year’s end, the appellate branch will not have the quorum required to hear cases.


“The organisation is in a deep crisis. We have to realise that,” said Cecilia Malmstrom, the European Union trade commissioner during a debate this week in France on the results of the Bretton Woods agreement 75 years on. Trump’s trade office has accused the DSB’s appellate body of overstepping its authority by issuing excessively broad rulings that trample national sovereignty.


“If the Appellate Body collapses, which probably it will in December, at least temporarily, we will have no enforcement” of trade agreements, said Malmstrom. “If we have no rules, everybody can do whatever he wants and this would be be very bad, at least for developing countries,” she warned.Anne Kreuger, a former IMF deputy managing director, also voiced concern about the risk of a WTO blockage.


“Any new case brought to the WTO now probably could never be appealed, in which case everybody could do what they want,” she warned as the US and China are engaged in a trade war launched by Trump, who has accused the WTO of going too easy on China to the detriment of US business.


One example came on cue on Tuesday as the WTO found in favour of Beijing regarding a seven-year anti-dumping dispute, prompting a stern US response accusing China of market distortion.


“The WTO appellate report undermines WTO rules, making them less effective to counteract Chinese SOE (state-owned enterprises) subsidies that are harming US workers and businesses and distorting markets worldwide,” read an Office of the United States Trade Representative statement.


With the United States in particular criticising the WTO, French President Emmanuel Macron last year urged that the body be reformed.


Bank of France governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau called on Tuesday for a fresh multilateral approach to “improve how the WTO functions”.But Washington has, so far, refused to back any of the reform proposals submitted by other members. Malmstrom also called on China and the United States to help reform the body. — AFP


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