Taiwan blocks China’s WTO nominee

The WTO’s dispute settlement body had been due to consider the appointment of members of the WTO’s appellate body, but Taiwan asked for that item to be removed from the agenda, WTO officials said.

Other members including the United States, Japan and the European Union insisted it should be included, and the chairman of the meeting, Australia’s WTO ambassador Bruce Gosper, was forced to adjourn it to find a way out of the impasse.

WTO sources said they believed it was the first time the appointment of an appellate judge had been blocked in this way.

The judges play an important role settling trade disputes worth billions of dollars between the WTO’s 151 members.

Dispute settlement is at the heart of the multilateral trading system umpired by the WTO, ensuring that countries can trade fairly with each other.

Member states can seek a ruling from a WTO dispute panel if they believe another country is violating agreed trading rules. The appellate judges handle appeals against panel findings.

Chinese lawyer Yuejiao Zhang was one of three women and one man nominated to the seven-member appellate body by a selection committee set up in June.

Taiwan’s procedural move clearly took other WTO members by surprise, officials said.

The selection committee interviewed candidates, consulted with members and circulated the list of four names to all members on Nov. 7.

“Chinese Taipei certainly knew on the 7th of November who the recommendations were, so they could have objected informally before, but this is the first formal opportunity for them to object,” said one WTO official, using the name Taiwan is referred to in the organization.

Chinese diplomats reacted cautiously, noting that Taiwan had not objected to individual candidates by name or nationality, but simply asked for the whole agenda item discussing the appellate body nominations to be removed.

Taiwanese diplomats were not immediately available for comment.

But Taiwan’s move highlighted growing sensitivities at the WTO between China and Taiwan that Beijing regards as a rebel province, to be reunited with the motherland by force if necessary.

Earlier this month China said it would veto any revised text from the chairman of industry talks in the WTO’s long-running Doha round of talks on a new trade deal if it meant China faced tougher tariff-cutting requirements than other recent members.

Diplomats said this came down to a refusal by China, which joined the WTO in December 2001, to be treated any differently to Taiwan, which joined in January 2002, and is the spokesman of the WTO’s recently acceded members’ group.

Because new members slashed their tariffs as part of their “entry fee” on joining the WTO, there is recognition that they should get special treatment in the current negotiations.

But China has done so well out of membership that many countries say it should not be treated as favorably as other new members.

“Can we treat China differently? The strong answer from China was not different to Taipei,” said one diplomat.

Taiwan’s move on Monday, by holding up the entire dispute settlement meeting, also blocked the formation of a panel to investigate a U.S. complaint into rules affecting the distribution of entertainment products such as films and music in China.

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