By Choi Sung-jin
The United States has all but scuttled the reappointment of Chang Seung-wha, the only Korean judge in the appellate body of the WTO dispute settlement system, foreign reports say.
According to the Financial Times Tuesday, the U.S. notified World Trade Organization (WTO) member nations last week that it could not support Chang’s reappointment. The WTO mediates trade disputes among member countries through its dispute settlement system, and the appellate body (AB) is like its court of appeal.
The term of office for the seven AB judges is four years and that of Judge Chang, who was appointed in 2012, ended on May 31. His reappointment requires the approval of all members of the dispute settlement body, but the U.S. opposition has made this all but impossible.
Washington’s stated objection is that Chang, along with other AB members, had gone beyond interpreting the law to create it, the London-based business daily said. “The reality is that Chang has failed to back the U.S. in cases in which Washington has been found in breach of WTO rules. This is not only unsettling for the WTO, but for the U.S.’s supposed role as an anchor for the international rule of law.”
More specifically, Korean officials said, it was because of four decisions Chang has made as a judge, three of which disadvantaged the U.S. Washington’s ongoing attempts to file an anti-dumping suit against Korean washing machines might have exerted some influence on the U.S. move, they added. Chang is a lawyer and a professor at Seoul National University.
Other WTO members, including the EU, Japan and Brazil, said the U.S. objection to the customary renaming of judges ran the risk of damaging not just the appellate body’s independence but the dispute settlement system itself.
At an executive committee meeting of the dispute settlement body last week, the EU said, “This is unprecedented, posing a very serious threat to the independence and impartiality of the judges of the AB.”
Seoul is not exactly sitting idle, either. “The U.S. objection damages the independence of the WTO’s appellate body,” a government official said. “We are explaining the iniquity of the U.S. moves to other member countries.”