scholarly journals Chile – price band system and safeguard measures relating to certain agricultural products

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 507-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
KYLE BAGWELL ◽  
ALAN O. SYKES

This paper addresses the dispute brought to the World Trade Organization (WTO) by Argentina concerning certain Chilean measures affecting the importation of wheat, wheat flour, oil seeds, edible vegetable oils and sugar. The complaint by Argentina challenged two types of policies – a ‘price band system’ that was applicable to four of those product categories, and safeguard measures that were applicable to three of them. The WTO panel ruled in favor of Argentina on both sets of measures. It found that the price band system violated Article IV of the Agriculture Agreement and Article II of GATT 1994. The safeguard measures, according to the panel, violated various provisions of the Safeguards Agreement, as well as Article XIX of GATT 1994. Chile elected not to appeal the panel ruling regarding the safeguard measures, but did appeal the adverse finding as to the price band system. The Appellate Body subsequently affirmed in substantial part the finding that the price band system violated Article 4 of the Agriculture Agreement, but reversed the finding of a violation under Article II of GATT 1994. Chile has since indicated an intention to comply with the ruling, and an arbitration pursuant to Article 21.3 of the DSU determined that the reasonable period of time for compliance would expire on December 23, 2003.

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (S1) ◽  
pp. 133-157
Author(s):  
Kyle Bagwell ◽  
Alan O. Sykes

This study addresses the dispute brought to the World Trade Organization (WTO) by Argentina concerning certain Chilean measures affecting the importation of wheat, wheat flour, oil seeds, edible vegetable oils and sugar. The complaint by Argentina challenged two types of policies – a “price band system” that was applicable to four of those product categories, and safeguards measures that were applicable to three of them. The WTO panel ruled in favor of Argentina on both sets of measures. It found that the price band system violated Article IV of the Agriculture Agreement and Article II of GATT 1994. The safeguards measures, according to the panel, violated various provisions of the Safeguards Agreement, as well as Article XIX of GATT 1994. Chile elected not to appeal the panel ruling regarding the safeguards measures, but did appeal the adverse finding as to the price band system.


Author(s):  
James Munro

Chapter 4 examines whether carbon units qualify as ‘goods’/‘products’ under GATT 1994 and free trade agreements covering goods. Despite complexities, the analysis of Chapter 4 concludes that, on balance, the better view is that ‘carbon units’ do qualify as ‘products’ and ‘goods’ under GATT 1994 and free trade agreements covering goods. This is because they can be possessed, stored, traded across borders, and hold economic value. The most challenging aspect is the lack of obvious ‘production’ involved in some classes of units. However, since some units are clearly ‘produced’, and since all units are fungible and are, to some degree, in a competitive market relationship with one another, regardless of how they are created, it would be anomalous if only some classes of carbon units were covered. If, however, the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization were to determine—contrary to existing case law—that tangibility is a threshold requirement of ‘goods’/‘products’, it is clear that no carbon units would qualify.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-65
Author(s):  
Tapiwa V. Warikandwa ◽  
Patrick C. Osode

The incorporation of a trade-labour (standards) linkage into the multilateral trade regime of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been persistently opposed by developing countries, including those in Africa, on the grounds that it has the potential to weaken their competitive advantage. For that reason, low levels of compliance with core labour standards have been viewed as acceptable by African countries. However, with the impact of WTO agreements growing increasingly broader and deeper for the weaker and vulnerable economies of developing countries, the jurisprudence developed by the WTO Panels and Appellate Body regarding a trade-environment/public health linkage has the potential to address the concerns of developing countries regarding the potential negative effects of a trade-labour linkage. This article argues that the pertinent WTO Panel and Appellate Body decisions could advance the prospects of establishing a linkage of global trade participation to labour standards without any harm befalling developing countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 1011-1027
Author(s):  
Andrew David Mitchell ◽  
Theodore Samlidis

AbstractAustralia became the first country to introduce standardised or plain packaging laws for tobacco products in 2011. However, they immediately came under direct and indirect challenge from the tobacco industry in various domestic and international fora, including at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO-consistency of Australia's measures was not settled until June 2020, when the Appellate Body upheld two WTO panels’ earlier findings that Australia had acted consistently with its obligations under certain WTO agreements. This article critically analyses the Appellate Body's key findings and their implications for implementing other public health measures. It is shown that these implications are multifaceted, have political, practical and legal dimensions and are likely to reach beyond the WTO dispute resolution system's bounds into other international trade and investment law contexts.


Author(s):  
Sivan Shlomo Agon

When asked what, if anything, distinguishes US-Clove Cigarettes from other disputes filed with the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement System (DSS), an Appellate Body (AB) Secretariat staff member replied: ‘A number of things and nothing at the same time’.1 This answer aptly captures the story of trade-and disputes and the DSS’s goal-attainment patterns in such cases, as revealed in this second part of the book. On the one hand, as in all WTO disputes, the DSS appears to be engaged in this class of cases in the routine legal exercise of law application and interpretation while pursuing its multiple goals, including rule-compliance and dispute resolution. On the other hand, as a WTO practitioner remarked when discussing the ‘interpretative exercise’ carried out by the DSS in trade-and disputes:...


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