世贸组织(WTO)最不需要的是它的权威再次受到威胁。去年，在近15年的挣扎之后，多哈回合多边贸易谈判实际上已宣告死亡。
The last thing the World Trade Organisation needs is another threat to its authority. Last year it saw the so-called Doha round of multilateral trade talks in effect declared dead after nearly 15 years of suffering.
世贸组织谈判功能的瓦解，使得争端解决机制成为其唯一真正功能。世贸组织根据既有贸易规则，在政府之间做出裁定，并且命令过错方调整政策，使其合规。如今，美国正通过赶走一名恰好不同意美国观点的裁判官，试图颠覆世贸组织的这一功能，这一事实令人非常不安。
The collapse of the WTO’s negotiating role has left as its only real function the dispute settlement process, which adjudicates between governments over existing trade rules and orders miscreants to bring policies into compliance. The fact that the US is now trying to subvert it by removing a judge who happens to disagree with the American viewpoint is seriously disturbing.
华盛顿方面采取了不寻常的做法，阻止受人尊敬的韩国律师张胜和(Seung Wha Chang)在争端解决上诉机构(AB)获得再任命。美国公布的反对理由是，张胜和连同该机构的其他成员逾越了解释法律的界限，擅自进入创建法律的范畴。但是，美国在这个主张上完全孤立。现实是，在一些美国被发现违反世贸组织规则的案子里，张胜和未能支持美国。对于世贸组织，对于美国作为国际法治支柱的应有角色，这都是令人不安的。
Washington has taken the unusual step of blocking the reappointment of Seung Wha Chang, a respected South Korean lawyer, to the appellate body (AB) of the dispute settlement system. Its stated objection is that he, along with other AB members, has gone beyond interpreting the law to creating it. But the US essentially stands alone in this contention. The reality is that Mr Chang has failed to back the US in cases in which Washington has been found in breach of WTO rules. This is not only unsettling for the WTO, but for the US’s supposed role as an anchor for the international rule of law.
尤其是，美国多年企图辩解其站不住脚的规范对进口征收反倾销税和反补贴税的规则，而上诉机构曾多次表示，这些规则是武断和不公平的。如今，仿佛该上诉机构就是美国最高法院(US Supreme Court)，美国政府想要开始对法官们强加意识形态“石蕊试验”，以确保他们贯彻跟美国官方相同的司法理念。
In particular, the US has spent years trying to defend its indefensible rules governing the imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties on imports, which the appellate body has repeatedly said are arbitrary and unfair. Now, as though the appellate body were the US Supreme Court, Washington wants to start imposing ideological litmus tests on judges to make sure they adopt the same judicial philosophy as does the US.
这并非奥巴马政府第一次削弱世贸组织争议解决机制的精神（如果还不是法律的话）。2014年，在巴西针对美国棉花补贴提起的一宗著名案件胜诉10年后，美国政府终于承认做不到减少对本国农场主的补贴，于是向巴西棉农支付一系列总共7.5亿美元的款项，实际上“收买”了后者。
This is not the first time that the Obama administration has undermined the spirit, if not the law, of the WTO’s dispute settlement process. In 2014, a decade after a celebrated ruling against American cotton subsidies in a case brought by Brazil, Washington finally admitted it could not bring itself to cut the handouts to its own farmers and instead in effect bought off the Brazilian cotton growers with a series of payments totalling $750m.
尽管此举了结了此案，但它颠覆了世贸组织机制的公共政策效益，那就是由各国政府修订本国政策、推动全球范围内的自由与公平贸易，而不是付钱给一些特定的诉讼当事人，然后毫无顾虑地继续扭曲贸易。
While this settled the case, it subverted the public policy benefit of the WTO process, which is for governments to amend their policies to promote free and fair trade across the world rather than simply to pay off a particular set of litigants and carry on distorting trade regardless.
这跟上诉机构的问题存在共同点：美国政府无力对抗国内强大的游说势力，只能出于胆怯回避他们。实际上，美国的棉农数量只有1万人，但他们被允许继续获得补贴，破坏非洲数百万棉花种植者的生计。反倾销税和反补贴税问题仅对美国制造业中日益衰退、无力在世界市场上竞争的产业而言是重要的，但这些产业继续把持着美国贸易政策。
This and the appellate body issue have something in common: the inability of Washington to confront truculent domestic lobbies rather than scuttle from them in abject fear. There are no more than 10,000 actual cotton farmers in the US, and yet they are allowed to carry on undermining the livelihoods of millions of cotton-growers in Africa with their subsidies. The antidumping and countervailing duty issues are important only to declining parts of the US manufacturing sector that cannot compete on world markets, and yet they continue to exert a grip over American trade policy.
这一事件也证明了——至少在此例中——那些批评美国人士的正确。他们说，美国只有在控制了肩负全球合作职能的国际机构时，才会支持全球合作。这是美国仍无法摆脱的一种严重指控。
The episode also vindicates, at least in this instance, those critics of the US who say Washington favours global co-operation only insofar as it controls the international institutions that run it. This is a serious charge to which the US remains exposed.
多边主义要从国内做起。如果想要继续被视为全球治理方面的领袖，那么美国政府需要与那些想让它忽视或颠覆全球规则的国内利益集团针锋相对。美国或许不喜欢世贸组织上诉机构的裁定，但它不应寻求用支持美国的人塞满该机构。这样的决定威胁的不仅仅是世贸组织的可信度，而且是美国自身的国际地位。
Multilateralism begins at home. If Washington wants to continue being seen as a leader in global governance, it needs to confront those domestic interests that want it to ignore or subvert global rules. The US may not like what the appellate body decides, but it should not seek to pack it with its supporters. Decisions like this threaten not just the credibility of the WTO but the US’s own global standing.