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Indigenous Interests and the Chapeau of Article XX: Equality of What?

Part of: WTO EC-Seal Products Case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alexia Herwig
Alexia Herwig*
Affiliation:
University of Antwerp
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My analysis focuses on a limited aspect of the Appellate Body’s (AB) EC—Seal Products decision under the chapeau of Article XX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). It is revelatory for the kind of discrimination at issue under the chapeau in surprising ways.

The general exceptions in Article XX serve to justify measures infringing other GATT provisions that have a close nexus to a list of types of public policies. The list of public policies is exhaustive. The chapeau prohibits application of those measures that arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate between countries where the same conditions prevail or that constitute a disguised restriction on international trade.

Type
Symposium: WTO EC-Seal Products Case
Information
AJIL Unbound , Volume 108 , 2014 , pp. 300 - 307
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2014

References

1 Appellate Body Report, European Communities—Measures Prohibiting the Importation and Marketing of Seal Products, WT/DS400/AB/R, WT/DS401/AB/R (Adopted June 18, 2014) [hereinafter Appellate Body Report, EC—Seal Products].

2 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, Apr. 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1A, 1867 UNTS187.

3 Lorand Bartels, The WTO Legality of the Application of the EU’s Emission Trading System to Aviation, 23 EUR.J.INT’LL. 429, 452(2012).

4 Appellate Body Report, Brazil—Measures Affecting Imports of Retreaded Tyres, paras. 227-228, WT/332/AB/R (Adopted Dec. 17, 2007); Appellate Body Report, United States—Measures Affecting the Cross-Border Supply of Gambling and Betting Services, para.351, WT/DS285/AB/R (Adopted Apr. 20, 2005); Panel Report, United States—Measures Affecting the Cross-Border Supply of Gambling and Betting Services, para. 6.599, WD/DS285/R (Adopted Apr. 20, 2005).

5 Appellate Body Report, United States—Import Prohibition of Certain Shrimp and Shrimp Products, paras. 261-65, WT/DS58/AB/R (Adopted Nov. 6, 1998).

6 Armin von Bogdandy, Law and Politics in the WTO -Strategies to Cope with a Deficient Relationship, 5 MAX PLANCK Y.B.UNL.609, 667-670 (2001).

7 Lorand Bartels, The Chapeau of the General Exceptions in the WTO GATT and GATS Agreement, 109 AJIL 95 (2015).

8 Appellate Body Report, EC—Seal Products, supra note 1.

9 Regulation (EC) No 1007/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 on trade in seal products (Text with EEA relevance), 2009 O.J. (L 286) 36.

10 Commission Regulation (EU) No 737/2010 of 10 August 2010 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1007/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on trade in seal products (Text with EEA relevance), 2010 O.J. (L 216) 1.

11 Appellate Body Report, EC—Seal Products, supra note 1, at para. 5.322.

12 Id.at paras. 5.324-5.

13 Id.at para. 5.320.

14 Id.at paras. 5.324-8.

15 Id.at para. 5.317.

16 Id.at para. 5.334; Panel Report, European Communities—Measures Prohibiting the Importation and Marketing of Seal Products, para. 7.266, WT/DS400/R, WT/DS401/R (Adopted June 18, 2014) [hereinafter Panel Report, EC—Seal Products].

17 Appellate Body Report, EC—Seal Products, supra note 1, at para. 5.337.

18 Id.at para. 5.337 n.1612; Panel Report, EC—Seal Products, supra note 15, at para. 7.316.

19 Appellate Body Report, EC—Seal Products, supra note 1, at para 5.337.

20 Id.

21 Petros Mavroidis, Sealed with a Doubt: EU, Seals and the WTO 7 (unpublished manuscript) (on file with author).

22 Bartels, supra note 7.

23 Appellate Body Report, Japan—Taxes on Alcoholic Beverages, 16-17, WT/DS8/AB/R, WT/DS10/AB/R, WT/DS11/AB/R (Adopted Nov. 1, 1996); Appellate Body Report, Korea—Measures Affecting Imports of Fresh, Chilled and Frozen Beef,para. 137, WT/DS161/AB/R, WT/DS169/AB/R (Adopted Jan. 10, 2001).

24 Appellate Body Report, Brazil—Measures Affecting Imports of Retreaded Tyres, supra note 4, at para. 232.

25 Appellate Body Report, United States—Import Prohibition of Certain Shrimp and Shrimp Products, supra note 5, at paras. 169-75.

26 Appellate Body Report, United States—Standards for Reformulated and Conventional Gasoline, 25-28, WT/DS2/AB/R (Adopted May 20, 1996).

27 Appellate Body Report, EC—Seal Products, supra note 1, at para. 5.337 n.1615.

28 Id.at para. 5.337 n.1612; Panel Report, EC—Seal Products, supra note 15, at para. 7.316.

29 Appellate Body Report, EC—Seal Products, supra note 1, at para. 5.336.

30 Appellate Body Report, Dominican Republic—Measures Affecting the Importation and Internal Sale of Cigarettes, para. 179, n. 372 174, 182, and 194, WT/DS302/AB/R (Adopted May 19, 2005); Appellate Body Report, EC—Seal Products, supra note 1, at para. 5.336.

31 Appellate Body Report, Korea—Measures Affecting Imports of Fresh, Chilled and Frozen Beef, supra note 23, at para. 141.

32 Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (ILO No. 169), June 27 1989, 28 ILM 1382 (1989).

33 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Dec. 16, 1966, 6 ILM 360 (1967).

34 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, GARes. 61/295 (Oct. 2, 2007).

35 John Rawls, A Theory of Justice 62—63 (rev. ed. 1999).

36 Richard Arneson, Egalitarianism, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Edward N. Zalta ed., 2013).

37 Yakye Axa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay, Judgment, Inter-Am. Ct. H. R. (ser. C) No. 125 (June 17, 2005).

38 Katrien De Graeve, Children’s Rights from a Gender Studies Perspective. Gender, Intersectionality and Ethics of Care, in Routledge Inter-National Handbook of Children’s Rights Studies 147, 152-54 (Wouter Vandenhole et al.eds., 2015).

39 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Dec. 16, 1966,6 ILM 368 (1967).

40 Human Rights Committee, Apirana Mahuika v. New Zealand, Communication No. 547/1993, para. 9.5, UN Doc. CCPR/C/70/547/1993 (2000).

41 For a critique of the AB ignoring the international human rights instruments invoked by the EU, see Gregory Shaffer and David Pabian, European Communities—Measures Prohibiting the Importation and Marketing of Seal Products, 109 AJIL 154 (2015).

42 Appellate Body Report, United States—Import Prohibition of Certain Shrimp and Shrimp Products, supra note 5 at para. 168.