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Henry Gao

Is it time to bring back the AB?

Greg Shaffer and I think so in our new op-ed in the Hill, but not everyone seems to agree with us, as illustrated in this lively Twitter exchange with Dan Ikenson, Rob Howse and Simon Lester. However, I think there might be some movement on this issue in the WTO

Call for Proposals: 2021 World Trade Forum on "China & the WTO: 20 Years On"

2021 World Trade Forum China & the WTO: 20 Years On (book track sessions) November 2021, World Trade Institute, Bern, Switzerland Call for Proposals Dear colleagues, We invite your submissions of proposals for contributions to a volume on China & the WTO: 20 Years On (World Trade Forum Series, Cambridge

The Solution to the DG Crisis Comes from the AB

According to Reuters, the simple decision of appointing one of the DDGs as the Acting DG has run into impasse due to the insistence of the US to appoint Alan Wolff instead of Karl Brauner as most Members prefer. While seemingly surprising, I think this is the natural consequence of

The US is now officially a Non-Market Economy, according to China

On Friday the 17th, the Ministry of Commerce of China announced the preliminary determination in the anti-dumping investigation on imported propanol from the US. With affirmative findings on dumping, injury, and causation, the decision imposed anti-dumping duties of 254.4% and 267.4% on Dow Chemical Company and OXEA Corporation

How to Game the MPIA, or, How to Avoid Being Taken Advantage of in the MPIA

The newly-established Multiparty Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (“MPIA”) contains an interesting provision in para 18 of its “Agreed Procedures”: “At any time during the arbitration, the appellant, or other appellant, may withdraw its appeal, or other appeal, by notifying the arbitrators. This notification shall also be notified to the panel

It Sure Looks Different from the Inside, and Now the Outside Too? (or "Graham on Graham")

Simon Lester's posts about Tom Graham's recent speech on the Appellate Body ("AB") reminded me the speech Graham gave back in 2013, which was "[s]oon after [he] joined the Appellate Body". When I re-read the 2013 speech entitled "It Sure

The Resurrection of the Appellate Body: Three Proposals

The Appellate Body is dead. But not all hope is lost. Instead, we could still bring it back, and there are at least three different ways: 1. The first is launching the Appellate Body appointment process by forcing a vote through the General Council as per Article IX.1 of

Much ado about nothing? The President's Memorandum on Reforming Developing-Country Status in the WTO

Trump's Memorandum on Reforming Developing-Country Status in the WTO issued yesterday aims to "make trade more free, fair, and reciprocal by devoting all necessary resources toward changing the WTO approach to developing-country status such that advanced economies can no longer avail themselves of unwarranted benefits despite abundant

New paper on "Judicial Overreaching" at the WTO

Dr. Weihuan Zhou and I have posted on SSRN a new paper on AB crisis. In the paper, we addressed the US allegation that the AB has "overreached" in many cases. We tackle the issue by first reviewing the core function of the WTO, which in our view

The Development Debate in the WTO

"Development" has become another hotly-debated topic in the WTO these days. On Jan 15, the US tabled its communication "An undifferentiated WTO: self-declared development status risks institutional irrelevance", which Simon blogged about earlier. A month later, China, along with several other countries, tabled its own paper