US nominates two for WTO judgeships

The U.S. on Wednesday nominated two Americans to serve on the World Trade Organization’s powerful Appellate Body, the final arbiter of trade disputes between WTO member states.

The Office of U.S. Trade Representative announced that it is putting forward lawyers Thomas Graham and John Greenwald. The candidates will be interviewed by a selection committee and appointments will be voted on by the full membership before mid-December.

Graham is a trade lawyer at the Washington law firm of Skadden, Arps after working at the trade office in the 1990s when the WTO was formed.

Greenwald was the first head of the Import Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce and now also serves in private practice.

The seven-member Appellate Body is the WTO’s court of last resort and it reviews decisions on trade matters decided by lower dispute settlement panels.

Currently the Appellate Body is reviewing a WTO finding that aircraft-maker Boeing received illegal subsidies from the U.S. Judges this summer upheld a separate ruling that Airbus had been illegally subsidized by EU member states.

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