Wednesday's recommendations by the AB selection committee leaked on "WTO Reporter" http://www.bna.com/products/corplaw/wtor.htm.
Here are the reported results:
Janow (US) and Tanaguchi (Japan) to be replaced by Hillman (US) and Bautista (Philippines) in December, 2007
Abi-Saab (Egypt) and Ganesan (India) to be replaced by Zhang Yuejiao (China) and Oshima (Japan) in June, 2008
So far, the recommendations by the selection committee have always been approved by WTO members.
Some interesting consequences:
1. China has its first AB member
2. Three of the four newcomers are women, meaning that 3 out of 7 AB members will be female, a record in the AB's short history
3. Although 3 of the 4 retiring AB members were academics (Janow, Tanaguchi and Abi-Saab), none of their replacements are (the only remaining professors on the AB will soon be: Sacerdoti and Baptista; all 4 new AB members were previously in government, two of them are former ambassadors)
4. Japan keeps its seat (confirming that there are 3 de facto reserved seats on the AB: US, EC and Japan)
5. Egypt will not have an AB member for the first time in AB history
6. The Philippines re-gain their seat (originally occupied by Feliciano) and India loses its seat (not replaced by the Pakistani candidate)
7. Africa falls from two (Egypt, South Africa) to one AB member (South Africa)
8. The AB still awaits its first black member (Benin's candidate was not selected)
