Regulatory Autonomy under the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement: Implications of Korea–Import Bans, and Testing and Certification Requirements for Radionuclides

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Yong-Shik Lee
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Rational Basis ◽  
Public Interests ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Regulatory Constraints ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Constant Tension ◽  
Sanitary And Phytosanitary Agreement ◽  
Certification Requirements

Abstract The recent WTO dispute case, Korea–Import Bans, and Testing and Certification Requirements for Radionuclides, illustrates complex legal issues and significant political implications associated with the regulatory autonomy of a sovereign country under the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPS Agreement). There has been constant tension between the sovereign right of a WTO member state to determine its own appropriate level of protection (ALOP) and the regulatory constraints imposed under the SPS Agreement to prevent abuse and disguised trade protection. The case emerged from this tension and raises questions on the extent of the regulatory autonomy in the application of an SPS measure. This article addresses these questions and examines the criteria for the qualitative standards for the ALOP, the question that the Appellate Body decision did not fully resolve. The criteria for the qualitative ALOP standards affect the regulatory autonomy significantly under the current SPS rules as they determine the manner and the extent to which a Member may meet the sensitive public interests in the application of an SPS measure. The article proposes a rational basis test to restrain abuse of SPS measures while preserving the regulatory autonomy protected under the SPS Agreement.

scholarly journals Thailand–Cigarettes (Philippines): A More Serious Role for the ‘Less Favourable Treatment’ Standard of Article III:4

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILLIAM J. DAVEY ◽  
KEITH E. MASKUS
Keyword(s):  
Market Analysis ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
External Cost ◽  
National Treatment ◽  
Appellate Body Report ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Treatment Standard ◽  
Treatment Principle ◽  
Policy Impacts

AbstractThis paper analyzes a number of economic and legal issues raised by the Appellate Body Report in the Thai–Cigarettes case. The paper suggests two improvements that could be made to Panel procedures; supports the Appellate Body's interpretation of Article XX(d) in the present case, which seems to discard an earlier mistaken approach to Article XX; and examines, in some detail, whether the Appellate Body's application of the ‘less favourable treatment’ component of GATT Article III:4 in this and other cases is consistent with its jurisprudence under GATT Article III:2 and TBT Article 2.1. From an economics perspective, the case is straightforward on its face. However, the Appellate Body's rigorous application of the ‘less favourable treatment’ principle might not survive a fuller market analysis in terms of policy impacts on conditions of competition. Further, while we agree with the rejection of Thailand's Article XX claim, we raise the question of whether a strict national-treatment rule may be an unwarranted constraint on policy where there is a clear trade-related external cost to address.

Just Between You and Me: Mutual Recognition Agreements and the Most-Favoured Nation Principle

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSHUA A. ZELL
Keyword(s):  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Conformity Assessment ◽  
Broad Application ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Wto Appellate Body ◽  
Assessment Procedures ◽  
Gatt 1994 ◽  
Technical Regulations ◽  
The Way

AbstractMutual recognition agreements present unique legal issues in the application of the most-favoured nation obligations flowing from Article I:1 of GATT 1994 and Articles 2.1 and 5.1.1 of the TBT Agreement. Mutual recognition agreements come in two types – those recognizing the equivalence of technical regulations, and those recognizing the equivalence of conformity assessment procedures. Both carry potential trade advantages for state parties, but both also carry the potential to create unintended trade consequences for state parties if combined with a broad application of the most-favoured nation principle. The WTO Appellate Body has touched on a number of the relevant legal issues in a series of reports culminating in the May 2014 EC–Seals decision, but many questions remain. This article seeks to provide states and practitioners with a guide to the issues and the way in which the Appellate Body would most likely address the remaining questions, based on the existing jurisprudence.

scholarly journals US‒Carbon Steel (India):Multi-Product Firms and the Cumulation of Products

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-373
Author(s):  
ALAN SPEAROT ◽  
DUKGEUN AHN
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Steel ◽  
Burden Of Proof ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Economic Reality

AbstractOne of the key findings inUS-Carbon Steel (India)deals with the appropriate method to determine material injury when imported products are subject to simultaneous anti-dumping and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations. Along with addressing a number of legal issues concerning CVD investigations, the Appellate Body clarified restrictions on cross-cumulation of injury, essentially prohibiting the current US practice, and implicitly raising the burden of proof for parallel claims of dumping and subsidies. This decision is justified on economic grounds, where cumulation imposes a counterfactual scenario against which marginal damages of dumping and subsidies by each country cannot be properly evaluated. However, what the legal rulings by the Appellate Body did not recognize is the economic reality that many like products produced by the firms alleged to have received subsidies were selectively absent from the investigation, which more generally complicates the assessment of injury in dumping and subsidy cases.

scholarly journals Overseas Voter Mobilisation in Singapore: Implications from Malaysia's 13th General Election

2013 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Gomez ◽  
Rusdi Omar
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
General Election ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Run Up ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

This paper discusses voter mobilisation and other election-related activities of Malaysian voters living, studying and working in Singapore in the context of Malaysia's 13th general election (GE13). According to the World Bank, nearly 400,000 Malaysians reside in the city-state. Thus these figures represent a significant Malaysian voter pool based in Singapore. Efforts to mobilise these voters for general elections or other causes have political implications for both countries, which became apparent following Singapore-based Malaysians’ activities to encourage Malaysians to return home to cast their votes during the 13th general election. Singapore's strict public assembly laws led to several legal issues related to the voter mobilisation and election campaign activities undertaken by Malaysians in the city-state. These legal issues became a source of friction between the two countries during the elections as government leaders and authorities on both sides of the causeway accused the other of interfering in domestic political matters. Given the growing number of Malaysians in Singapore and the likely repeat of Malaysian voter mobilisation activities in Singapore in the run-up to the fourteenth general election (GE14) in 2018, issues related to the election activities of Malaysian voters in Singapore stand to be another set of factors that will shape the health of bilateral relations between these two countries.

Are Korea’s Import Bans on Japanese Foods Based on Scientific Principles? Comments on Reports of the Panel and the Appellate Body on Korean Import Bans and Testing and Certification Requirements for Radionuclides (WT/DS495)

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-176
Author(s):  
Taro HAMADA ◽  
Yoshimichi ISHIKAWA
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Dispute Settlement Mechanism ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
The World ◽  
Additional Testing ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
Phytosanitary Measures ◽  
Certification Requirements ◽  
Settlement Mechanism

This study focuses on the dispute over Korea’s import bans and the additional testing and certification requirements for Japanese foods and analyses the relevant findings of the reports of the Panel and the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement mechanism (DSM). Although the Panel had found that Korea’s measures were inconsistent with the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), the Appellate Body reversed most of these findings. Korea notified that it had completed the implementation of the reports of the Panel and the Appellate Body. However, the DSM has failed to contribute in settling this dispute positively and meaningfully, since it remains uncertain whether Korea’s import bans are based on scientific principles. Furthermore, the Appellate Body failed to complete its legal analysis of the inconsistency of Korea’s measures based on fact-findings and the facts uncontested between both disputing parties.

scholarly journals European Communities and Certain Member States – Measures Affecting Trade in Large Civil Aircraft (EC and Certain Member States–Large Civil Aircraft) (DS316)

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 700-706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kholofelo Kugler
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Member State ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Corporate Restructuring ◽  
German Government ◽  
Member States ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Civil Aircraft ◽  
State Financing ◽  
The Eu

This dispute relates to the compliance proceedings in which the panel and the Appellate Body found that that European Union (EU) and certain of the member States acted inconsistently with their obligations under the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement). The types of measures at issue in the original panel proceedings include the Launch Aid/Member State Financing (LA/MSF) for, inter alia, the A300, A310, and A380; French and German government ‘equity infusions’ provided in connection with the corporate restructuring of Aérospatiale and Deutsche Airbus; certain infrastructure and related measures provided by the German and Spanish authorities; and research and technological development funding provided by the European Communities and certain member States. The EU replaced the terminated the A300 and A310 programmes with new LA/MSF programmes, including the A350XWB LA/MSF subsidies.

The size and structure of the European Commission: legal issues surrounding project teams and a (future) reduced College

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-61
Author(s):  
Robert Böttner
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Project Teams ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
State Representation ◽  
Law System ◽  
Size And Structure

European Commission – Size of the Commission – Presidentialisation – President’s power of organisation – Principle of collegiality – Responsibility of the College at large – Reorganisation of the Commission – Balance between efficiency and member state representation – Legality of project teams – Rotation of voting rights in EU law – System of rotation for the European Commission

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document