Others News
- China to get first judge on WTO court
Date: 16-Nov-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
CHINA is set to get its first judge on the World Trade Organization's highest court, which will also for the first time include three women, diplomats and officials said Thursday.
Chinese lawyer Zhang Yuejiao is slated to be named Monday to the seven-member WTO Appellate Body, which issues rulings in trade disputes that can be worth billions of dollars, including cases between China and the United States.
Jennifer Hillman of the United States, Lilia Bautista of the Philippines and Shotaro Oshima of Japan were also endorsed by a WTO selection committee to fill the four soon-to-be-vacant spots on the dispute board.
They are expected to be officially selected at a meeting Monday at the WTO, where any of the trade body's 151 member states have the right to veto their accession.
Dispute resolution is at the heart of the multilateral trading system, which hinges on countries' adherence to rules on how to treat goods and services crossing borders.
WTO member states can seek a ruling on another country's policies that they believe violate international trade rules. Both developed and developing countries have launched disputes in areas including bananas, computer chips and rolled steel.
Complaints are reviewed by an expert panel, whose findings may then be appealed to the Appellate Body, which can uphold, modify or reverse the conclusions. Countries losing cases at the WTO can be forced to change their laws or face trade sanctions.
WTO disputes are expected to proliferate if diplomats negotiating a new global trade pact, known as the Doha round, fail to produce a deal to smooth trade flows. Several big cases are now underway at the WTO.
Economic tensions between the United States and China are also playing out at the WTO, where both countries have launched cases against the other on issues including copyright, taxation, car parts, paper and movies and music.
If selected Monday, Hillman and Bautista would join the top court next month, replacing Yasuhei Taniguchi of Japan and Merit Janow of the United States, who was the first woman to serve as WTO appellate judge. Zhang and Oshima would join in June, taking the place of Georges Michel Abi-Saab of Egypt and Arumugamangalam Venkatachalam Ganesan of India. They can serve up to two four-year terms.
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