Donald Trump is on track to kill the World Trade Organization's highest court
Trump causes a problem and knows there will be no Court to try to solve it. damn
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-trade-war-g7-biarritz/
Trump storm blows into Macron’s G7 seaside summit
US officials rail against French president over agenda as trade tensions rise.
Updated 8/24/19, 5:25 PM CET
..................................The global outlook is also souring quickly because of worsening ties between South Korea and Japan, two powerhouses of high-end manufacturing, which has raised fears that global supply chains will be increasingly disrupted in sectors such as chemicals and semiconductors.
"Trade wars among G7 members will lead to weakening the already eroding trust among us" — Donald Tusk, European Council president
If that weren't enough, the World Trade Organization's appellate body — the highest international court that is meant to stop trade returning to an unsupervised law of the jungle — is close to collapse, largely thanks to Trump's refusal to allow the appointment of judges.
"Time is going to be short because there are so many problems," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a video message on Saturday ahead of the summit...........................................
World trade returns to the law of the jungle
The coming years are likely to focus more on diplomacy and power rather than legal rights.
Updated 12/31/18, 8:10 AM CET
Global trade is reverting to the most established doctrine of them all: Might is right.
https://www.politico.eu/article/wto-gatt-trade-tariffs-dispute-back-to-gatt-law-of-the-jungle-returns-to-tradeland/
U.S. President Donald Trump is on track to kill the World Trade Organization's highest court next year, which means the world is now poised to take a giant leap backwards to the years before 1995 in terms of resolving trade disputes.
Before the mid-1990s, trade was governed by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which allowed something closer to the law of the jungle to prevail. Big countries and trade blocs had a far greater ability to steamroller their will over smaller nations. Conflicts were resolved by diplomatic muscle rather than the strict letter of trade law.
Officials in Geneva, Brussels and Washington said the U.S. administration, led by Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, had made a calculation that GATT rules are in America's strategic interest.
“Lighthizer wants to go back to the days of the GATT, that’s obvious,” said one EU official.
"One former member of the Appellate Body said that the U.S. was asphyxiating the Appellate Body. My own view is: It's more of an assisted suicide" — Alan Wolff
America's tactic to return to GATT is to block the appointment of judges at the Appellate Body, the WTO's top court, that works on everything ranging from the dumping of ultra-cheap Chinese steel, to the eternal subsidy battle between Boeing and Airbus. By December 2019, or earlier, the court will not be able to function because there simply won't be enough judges......................................
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