The World Trade Organization (WTO) has announced Ronald Saborío’s appointment as chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal that will make a decision on the international litigation that Ukraine has initiated against Russia.
The WTO communiqué states that both countries were able to agree on the three arbitrators to whom the case would be presented. Saborío will work with Hugo Cayrús, from Uruguay, and Hunter Nottage, from New Zealand.
The WTO reported that the Governments of Canada, China, the United States, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and the European Union will participate as third parties in the dispute.
Since October 2015, Ukraine had consulted the WTO on Russia’s imposed measures on imports of railway equipment, because they violate the rules of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and the GATT 1994. However, in November 2016, Ukraine requested the establishment of the Arbitration Tribunal, a decision that the WTO Dispute Settlement Body adopted on December 16th.
The WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism is the most important international law body to solve trade disputes.
Ukraine has been a member of the WTO since 2008 and Russia since 2012.
Ronald Saborío is a consultant in the areas of international law, negotiation and commercial litigation, public-policy design and corporate diplomacy. He was also Costa Rica’s ambassador to the GATT, WTO and OECD.
The official has chaired other Arbitration Groups in different cases presented to the WTO: Tariff Measures on Imports of Agricultural and Industrial Products (European Union vs. Russia), Measures Affecting the Automobile Industry (Japan and EU vs. Canada), Fiscal Measures on Beverages (United States vs. Mexico) and Measures Affecting the Production and Sale of Cigarettes (United States vs. Indonesia).