Zimbabwean lawyer and author, Petina Gappah has been appointed to a three-member panel expected to adjudicate a dispute between the Russian Federation and United States of America.

Breaking the news on her Facebook page, Gappah said she is honored to serve on this panel which includes Ambassadors of Uruguay and Pakistan.

READ PETINA GAPPAH FULL TEXT ON HER APPOINTMENT BELOW…

It’s now official, so I can share it here. The Director-General of the World Trade Organization has appointed me to a three-member panel to adjudicate a dispute between the Russian Federation and the United States of America. It is a huge, billion-dollar dispute, part of an ongoing and increasingly fractious trade conflict between the two countries.

The actions taken by the Trump administration have raised significant interest; not only have other WTO Members complained about the same issues and established their own panels, no less than 21 WTO Members have registered as third parties in our panel, among them major trading parties like China, India, Japan, Brazil and the European Union.

It is a real honor to serve on this panel with my co-panelists, Ambassador Ehlers of Uruguay, our chair, and Ambassador Shah of Pakistan. Panelists serve in a part time capacity, working from wherever they are based and traveling to Geneva as needed for meetings and hearings.

So this fits nicely with other things I am doing, winding up my work on ZIDA, which is now before parliament, and starting my book tour.

I am delighted to be returning to service at the WTO. It feels like coming back home. But this time, as an adult.