‘Back to square one’ if WTO appeals body fails: judge James Crawford

A serious economic recession and the collapse of the WTO appeals body would be the worst case scenario from current US trade policy and a move away from multilateralism, according to Australia’s leading international jurist, judge James Crawford. Speaking to AFR Weekend, Mr Crawford, who is a judge on the International Court of Justice, said the Trump administration was “challenging the whole post-1945 system as put together by the United States”. Last month, the US placed a 25 per cent tariff on $US34 billion of Chinese goods, prompting China to respond in kind. It also previewed a further $US200 billion of Chinese goods it wanted to hit with a 10 per cent tariff. Read more here.