World Trade Organization and the EC Biotech Case

Abstract

The World Trade Organization is often faced with the challenge of reconciling its central objective of promoting free trade with the imperatives of avoiding adverse effects on the environment and public health. The organization has increasingly had to address this concern through its dispute settlement system and has refined several aspects of the debate through the Reformulated Gasoline, Shrimp-Turtle, Asbestos and Beef-Hormones cases. The EC Biotech case is the latest such dispute that has brought into focus the role of the World Trade Organization in protecting the environment and public health. This high-profile case has brought attention to several procedural issues pertaining to the dispute settlement system, such as the role of advisory experts and of amicus curiae briefs as well as the extended time taken in resolving these special cases, which are marked with a high level of complexity and political sensitivity. Although the panel report has retained a narrow frame of reference, the case has also drawn attention to significant substantive issues such as the definition of ‘undue delay’, the role of science and precaution and the inter-relationship between trade law and public international law. There remain, however, several questions on which the panel commented either inconclusively or not at all. In the event that the panel ruling is appealed, perhaps the Appellate Body will elaborate more fully on some of these crucial concerns that need to be addressed in order to identify a template for interaction between the objectives of free trade and the protection of environment and public health.