Mexico Will Counter US Tuna Appeal At WTOff

Source: Univision

Mexico has announced that it will defend the favorable ruling by a panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) regarding the conflict with the U.S. on Mexican tuna.

Following the US decision to file an appeal in the WTO dispute, the Mexican Ministry of Economy released a statement that it will submit a counter-appeal to the WTO “in the next five days” by presenting a new defense of its arguments against the United States’ restrictions and “discrimination” to Mexican tuna by the ‘dolphin-safe’ labeling.

“This measure affects Mexico more than any other exporter,” the Mexican Ministry explained the move in its announcement.

On September 15th, a WTO panel found that the US measures were a governmental regulation that was more trade-restrictive than necessary and thus in violation of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT).

Although the panel recognized the U.S. right to aim at preventing non-observed mortalities and injuries to dolphins through its labeling measures, it made this conclusion after a lengthy discussion of the label’s effectiveness and whether mortalities and serious injuries occur with other practices in other regions. On the basis of that discussion it found that the label was not able to achieve this objective and was therefore more trade restrictive than necessary.

After the U.S.’s decision to appeal, the Mexican Secretariat of Economy said that it would “carefully review” the arguments presented by the U.S. against the panel’s ruling. The restrictive and discriminatory effects of the U.S. labeling measures have limited Mexican tuna exports to the US market despite the Mexican fleet’s compliance “with the highest international standards for the protection of dolphins”.

The ‘dolphin-safe’ provisions “are more trade-restrictive than necessary to achieve a legitimate objective, taking into account the risks that non-fulfillment would create,” the WTO judges said in a statement announcing their ruling.

Mexico will defend the favorable ruling of the panel and will point out that the labeling is “an unnecessary obstacle to the trade in tuna,” which violates the WTO multilateral rules.

In the appeal process, Mexico will request to review the unfavorable issues, particularly the “discriminatory aspects that affect Mexico more than any other exporter.”

According to the Secretariat, regardless the outcome of the negotiations, there are aspects that have been asserted by the WTO that cannot be modified, such as the fact that “Mexico fishes tuna under the most advanced international standards for the protection of dolphins.”

Another aspect is that some fishing methods endorsed by the U.S. actually do cause “death and harm to dolphins and other marine species.”

Based on the scheduled deadlines, the Mexican Secretariat of Economy expects that “the final decision of the WTO Appellate Body will be known in late April.”

Mexico filed its complaint against the U.S. at the WTO in October 2008 for denying the use of the ‘dolphin-safe’ label on Mexican tuna, even though the country meets the “highest international standards”.