U.S. “dolphin safe” labels not WTO-safe
The World Trade Organization’s appellate body issued a ruling today that the U.S. use of "dolphin safe" labels on tuna products discriminates against Mexican producers: [B]y excluding most Mexican tuna products from access to the “dolphin-safe” label while granting access to most US tuna products and tuna products from other countries, the measure modifies the ...
The World Trade Organization's appellate body issued a ruling today that the U.S. use of "dolphin safe" labels on tuna products discriminates against Mexican producers:
The World Trade Organization’s appellate body issued a ruling today that the U.S. use of "dolphin safe" labels on tuna products discriminates against Mexican producers:
[B]y excluding most Mexican tuna products from access to the “dolphin-safe” label while granting access to most US tuna products and tuna products from other countries, the measure modifies the conditions of competition in the US market to the detriment of Mexican tuna products…
Mexico’s WTO ambassador has declared the ruling a "big victory" that may translate into billions in new revenue for Mexican producers. For their part, WTO skeptics are already decrying the ruling as an unwarranted interference with national regulations. Public Citizen’s Lori Wallach used the ruling to warn against the Obama administration’s main trade project, the Trans-Pacific Partnership:
This case underscores why countries must insist that WTO rules be altered and that no new agreements use the same corporate backdoor deregulation model. The Obama administration must stand with the thousands of Americans who have signed a Consumer Rights Pledge calling on the U.S. to not comply with these illegitimate trade pact rulings and to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations that would greatly intensify this problem.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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