The Trump administration has blocked all new appointments to the World Trade Organization’s dispute-resolution court and the terms of two of the last three judges on the WTO’s appellate body will expire.
The U.S. first started blocking appointments under former President George W. Bush. It continued under former President Barack Obama and now the Trump administration has blocked all new appointments to the World Trade Organization’s dispute-resolution court.
According to TIME magazine, “their departure will deprive the de facto Supreme Court of world trade of its ability to issue rulings.”
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy said in a statement: “We are in a crisis moment for our global trading system. As of tomorrow, the court will cease to exist.”
Bernard Hoekman, an economist at the European University Institute, said: “Where the United States is completely alone is the approach they’ve taken, (which) is to say: ‘We’re just going to blow this thing up.”
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor, wrote on Twitter: “By blocking all new appointments to the WTO’s dispute-resolution court, President Trump has allowed it to decline from seven members to three. Donald ‘Tariff Man’ Trump (his words) can now impose whatever tariffs he likes, without fear that the WTO might find them to be illegal.”
The move comes as Trump escalates protectionist policies on multiple fronts. The World Trade Organization will now be unable to issue binding rulings on trade disagreements among its 164 member countries.
A senior fellow at the Centre for China and Globalization, said: “The most urgent issue is the survival of the WTO in this turbulent time. I don’t say that the WTO will die, but what kind of survival, what kind of existence, what kind of role it will continue to play?”
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