Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Latest work on the EU Seal trade case

For those following WTO cases, the EU seal trade ban has been an interesting case. It essentially relates to an EU ban on trade in seal products which has been challenged by Canada. In December 2011 I had blogged under the title "Fate of Seal trade "sealed"? essentially outlining the dispute.

Those interested in the subject may like to see Tamara Perisin's latest article titled "IS THE EU SEAL PRODUCTS REGULATION A SEALED DEAL? EU AND WTO CHALLENGES" here.
"In both the EU and the WTO there are currently pending cases on the legality of EU Regulation 1007/2009 on trade in seal products and its Implementing Regulation 737/2010. While seals seem to be very attractive to the public so that raising arguments against these EU measures are not popular, the Regulations do raise concerns about competences, subsidiarity and proportionality which are relevant for compliance with EU primary law. They also raise concerns about possible protectionism, the use of public morals, coherence and necessity with regard to compatibility with WTO law. This paper seeks to examine all these issues."
The dispute at the WTO (DS400) is at the panel stage. We will be hearing a lot about this case in the coming days.

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