Last week, Bloomberg ran a story about Appellate Body Member Tom Graham which stated that:
- A U.S. member on WTO appellate body may resign in December...
While Graham’s term ends on Dec. 10, panel members in the past have stayed on to finish WTO cases they’re involved in. If he resigns, the seven-member body would no longer have a quorum to rule on pending WTO appeal cases.
“I have not yet decided, and I am watching developments closely,” Graham said in an interview at WTO headquarters in Geneva.
To clarify this, I have been in touch with various trade officials, who confirmed the following about the status of things:
Tom Graham plans to stay in his position for the remainder of his term, and there is no question of him "resigning." He made a brief statement in response to a question from a reporter in the halls of the WTO as to whether he would stay after 10 December when his term ends, but his response was a neutral statement about being undecided on how to approach cases after the expiration of his term. He was not making any announcements for the time after 10 December and in fact parties to appeals with recent or upcoming hearings have been informed to this effect. There are 12 pending appeals and the Walker process is ongoing, so it is premature to speculate about whether Mr. Graham would continue to work on all 12 of those appeals.