Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 7 • Number 18 • 19th October 2007

Environmental Groups Sumbit Amicus Brief in Brazil-Tyres Case

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Environmental groups continue to call on the EU to withdraw its appeal of a WTO ruling against Brazil’s import restrictions on retreaded tyres.

In the dispute, the EU had argued that the import measures were motivated by a desire to protect local tyre manufacturers from import competition, rather than by the pursuit of genuine public health objectives as claimed by Brasilia. The panel ultimately concluded that although the limitations were in theory justifiable to safeguard health and environmental considerations, Brazil applied them in a way that amounted to an unjustified and discriminatory restriction of trade.

In its appeal, the EU complained that the dispute panel “disregarded the actual facts in Brazil and went against established WTO law,” and that as a result, the ruling was unacceptably easy for Brasilia to implement (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 7 September 2007, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/07-09-07/story1.htm).

A number of environmental groups* are condemning this move, and submitted an Amicus Brief to the Appellate Body on the case. The appeal was discussed at a 15 October hearing with both parties to the case.

“The EU must back down in its attack on Brazil’s environmental regulation. By putting narrow commercial interests above environmental concerns now, the EU will also compromise its own ability to protect life, health, and the environment in the future - it is really shooting itself in the foot,” said Charly Poppe, Trade Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe.

The Amicus Curie brief is available at http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/Tyres_Appellate_11Oct2007.pdf

*Associação de Combate aos Poluentes (ACPO) * Associação de Proteção ao Meio Ambiente de Cianorte (APROMAC) * Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) * Centro de Derechos Humanos y Ambiente (CEDHA) * Conectas Direitos Humanos * Friends of the Earth Europe * The German NGO Forum on Environment and Development * Justiça Global * Instituto O Direito por Um Planeta Verde

ICTSD reporting.