Back to the Future: US-Tuna II and the New Environment-Trade Debate

This article discusses a number of pitfalls of the US-Tuna II Panel Report. This Report is interesting because it offers an occasion to reflect on some provisions of the Technical Barrier to Trade (TBT) Agreement, which may be crucial for the assessment of the legality of environmental labelling regimes. The most troubling part of the Report is the one dealing with the trade-restrictive nature of the measure. The Panel seems to have relied on a test by which if a measure does not reach its objectives perfectly, any other ineffective measures adopted with allegedly the same goals can be judged as a valid less-trade restrictive alternative. In other words, two wrongs seem to make a right in the view of the Panel; a conclusion that, for obvious reasons, will not be greeted with enthusiasm by environmentalists.

The so-called Tuna-Dolphin case is of one the icons of the trade-environment debate of the GATT era. After almost 20 years, Tuna-Dolphin is being disputed anew. The environmental good protected and the fishing practices contested are virtually the same.

Dolphins (the good protected) and (yellowfin) tuna were, and still are, swimming together in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (ETP). When tuna are caught with purse seine nets in the ETP (contested fishing practice), dolphins get accidentally killed. Back in the early nineties, the main measure disputed before a GATT panel was a US prohibition on imports of tuna from Mexico. The import ban was motivated by the protection of the environment because Mexican vessels were fishing with the controversial purse seine nets technique. The legal focus of the case was naturally Article XX of GATT 1947. As is well-known, the Panel report, while remaining unadopted, condemned the US ban.

Copyright:	© Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
Source:	Issue 02/2012 (Juni 2012)
Pages:	13
Price inc. VAT:	€ 41,65
Autor:	Alessandra Arcuri

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