Recently, Professor Yang Guohua of the School of Law, Tsinghua University has been invited by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to be an appeal arbitrator of “Turkey — Pharmaceutical Products (EU)” (DS583) (there were three arbitrators in this case). This was the first appeal arbitration case between WTO members after the Appellate Body suspended operation at the end of 2019.

Background

The WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism, as a mechanism for settling trade disputes among 164 members called the "International Trade Court", is composed of an expert group and an appellate body forming a “two-trial-for-final” and has accepted 612 disputes, making it the most active international dispute settlement mechanism. At the end of 2019, the Appellate Body stopped accepting cases. Subsequently, 52 WTO members, including the European Union and China, set up the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), and selected 10 arbitrators (including Professor Yang Guohua). Turkey is not a member of MPIA, but in this case, Turkey signed an "arbitration agreement" similar to MPIA with the European Union, and filed an appeal based on this agreement. According to the agreement, the arbitrators should consist of former Appellate Body members and MPIA arbitrators.