MPIA System Shown to Preserve WTO's 2-Tiered Appeal System, Law Professor Says
The World Trade Organization's multiparty interim appeal arbitration arrangement (MPIA), an alternative to the defunct Appellate Body, proved to be "operational" after it ensured the right of parties in an antidumping duties dispute to appeal dispute panel reports and to receive a "final, binding ruling, without loopholes to block the process," Geneva Graduate Institute law professor Joost Pauwelyn said in a Feb. 27 blog post. Pauwelyn said MPIA led to the resolution of a recent dispute on frozen fries "without blockage," which preserved “the system's 'binding character and two levels of adjudication.'"
In the ruling, MPIA arbitrators said Colombia's antidumping duties on frozen fries from various EU countries violated global trade rules. The arbitrators overturned some of the WTO panel's original conclusions (see 2302010022). With the U.S. preventing cases from being appealed to the Appellate Body, the global trade community praised the MPIA results.
"Although the MPIA as such is only a political commitment to sign appeal arbitration agreements in the future in specific cases, in all eight WTO disputes between MPIA participants where panels have been established to date, such agreements have been entered into within the set 60-day time limit," the post said. "While originally some doubt had been expressed as to whether this would happen, whether panels would suspend proceedings to allow for MPIA appeals and whether parties would follow the MPIA process instead of appealing into the void, so far, none of these concerns have materialized."