Japan to Participate in WTO Appellate Body Alternative

The Japanese Cabinet on March 10 greenlighted that nation's participation in the World Trade Organization's multiparty interim appeal arbitration (MPIA) agreement -- an alternative to the trade body's defunct Appellate Body (see 2303010026). The MPIA was initiated in April 2020 as a response to U.S. blocking the nomination process to the Appellate Body. The MPIA process released its first ruling in a dispute over Colombian antidumping duties on frozen fries from several EU countries (see 2212230025).