Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 9 • 11th March 2009
WTO to Hear Mexican Complaint over US Tuna Ban
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The WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body will consider a complaint from Mexico that US rules on ‘dolphin-safe’ tuna unfairly discriminate against its exports, according to an agenda for the 20 March meeting of the DSB that was released Tuesday. Mexico City believes it has a 90 percent chance of winning the suit, the Mexican news agency Notimex reported.
US law dictates that the ‘dolphin-safe’ label cannot be used on tuna caught in encircling, or ‘purse-seine’, nets, which often trap dolphins along with the fish. Mexico, however, contends that its fishing practices are fully sustainable and comply with the guidelines accepted by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, of which the US is a member.
A 2007 ruling by the US Court of Appeals banned the import of tuna carrying the seal of approval of the International Dolphin Conservation Programme (IDCP). The case was brought by a coalition of environmental group, which sued the Secretary of Commerce after he concluded that there was not enough evidence to prove that the use of purse seine nets, which are allowed by the IDCP, harmed depleted dolphin stocks in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. The court ruled that this decision was ‘arbitrary and capricious’, and overturned it.
Mexico asserts that the US restrictions on tuna imports violate several WTO rules, including national treatment and most-favoured nation obligations. The country also claims that the measures have forced more than a third of its tuna fleet to shut down.
“The greatest strength we have is our compliance with what had been agreed upon on safeguarding dolphins and improving our tuna fishing technology to the point that we have practically zero dolphin bycatch, as is stipulated by fisheries norms,” Ramon Corral Avila, the head of Mexico’s National Aquaculture and Fishing Commission told Notimex.
The tuna issue “is more a commercial problem than a biological one. It is a zero-tariff barrier where we have a free trade treaty,” he added.
Mexico requested consultations with the US on the matter in October of last year (see Bridges Weekly, 30 October 2008, http://ictsd.net/i/news/bridgesweekly/32386/). The consultations were held in December but did not lead to a resolution.
The dispute dates back to 1991, when Mexico first objected to the US embargo of Mexican tuna products under its Marine Mammal Protection Act.
ICTSD reporting; “WTO to look into US rules on ‘dolphin-safe tuna,” AP, 10 March 2009; “Expectations high in US tuna dispute,” NOTIMEX, 11 March 2009.
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