Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 23 • 24th June 2009

WTO Appoints Ramírez, Van den Bossche to Appellate Body

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Ricardo Ramírez Hernández of Mexico and Peter Van den Bossche of Belgium will become the next two members of the WTO’s highest court, the organisation announced on Friday. David Unterhalter of South Africa has been appointed to a second term on the seven-member Appellate Body.

The appointments were officially made at a meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body on 19 June.

Ramírez, who will replace Luiz Olavo Baptista of Brazil, will take up his post as of 1 July, while Van den Bossche’s term is set to commence on 12 December of this year. The Belgian national will replace Giorgio Sacerdoti of Italy, whose second and final four-year term will expire that month.

Ramírez works as the Counsel and Head of the International Trade Practice for Latin America in the Mexico City office of the law firm of Chadbourne and Parke. Prior to that post, he spent more than ten years serving as Mexico’s deputy general counsel for trade negotiations.

Van den Bossche is currently a professor of economic law and head of the Department of International and European Law at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. From 1997 to 2001, he was a counsellor and subsequently the acting director of the WTO Appellate Body Secretariat.

Unterhalter, who has served on the Appellate Body since 2006, previously worked as a law professor and lawyer in South Africa.

Ramírez and Van den Bossche emerged as likely nominees for the two openings on the Appellate Body after a competitive selection process that included candidates from Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and the Netherlands (see Bridges Weekly, 22 April 2009, http://ictsd.net/i/news/bridgesweekly/45429/).

According to WTO custom, one place on the high court is reserved for Latin America and one for the EU, a norm that helps preserve a representative composition of the legal systems and geographical origins of the WTO’s Members.

The WTO’s Appellate Body is charged with conducting reviews of reports from WTO Dispute Settlement panels.

ICTSD reporting.