GD/210

United States - Increase in the Rates of Duty on Certain Products of the European Economic Community (Presidential Proclamation No. 5759 of 24 December 1987)

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Other titles

Parties

Complainant
EEC
EEC-12
Respondent
United States
Third Parties

Products at Issue

Products at issue
Boneless beef, pork hams and shoulders, tomatoes (preserved), soluble or instant coffee extracts (etc.), fruit juices (not elsewhere specified), fermented alcoholic beverages containing less than 7% of alcohol by volume, pet food, intestines for artificial sausage casings.
Type of product
Agricultural
Product sub-type
Mixed ag-products

Related disputes

GATT
Related GD
GD/175
WTO
Related WTO Dispute
WT/DS26
WT/DS39
WT/DS48
WT/DS320

Key legal aspects

Legal basis
  • GATT Article XXIII:2
Claims raised
  • GATT Article II
  • GATT Article XXII
  • GATT Article XXIII
Defences raised
  • GATT Article XX

Adjudicators

Type
Chairperson
Other members

Report

Type
Legal basis at issue
  • GATT Article XXIII:2
Claims at issue
Defences at issue
No of Pages (total / legal reasoning)
  • -

Timeline

Request for consultations

Outcome

Outcome of the proceedings
Consultations held
Additional Info US retaliatory measures against the EC Animal Hormones Directive (85/649/EEC) in dispute TBT/Spec/18:L/6438 (28/11/1988) Communication from the EEC: "requests the Council to examine this matter [increase in rates of duty of up to 100 per cent ad valorem by Presidential Proclamation No. 5759 of 24/12/1987] and, pursuant to the procedures provided for in Article XXIII, to make a ruling on the legal issues and recommend appropriate action."

C/M/228 (16/03/1989) Minutes of Council Meeting (8-9/02/1989) On the communication from the EEC L/6438 "the United States had great difficulty in agreeing to the Community's request, which was to set up a panel to examine only the US measures taken in response to what the United States considered to be an unjustified directive by the Community. (...) [P]remature to set up a panel at the present meeting."

C/M/229 (20/03/1989) Minutes of Council Meeting (21/02/1989) EEC "agreement had been reached" to hold consultations "in the very near future". "[I]ntended to remain very firm (...) in seeking to ensure that the Contracting Parties condemned all unilateral actions whatever their form or justification."

C/M/230 (05/04/1989) Minutes of Council Meeting (06/03/1989) EEC "formal request for a panel remained before the Council, which would one day have to take a decision."

C/M/231 (02/05/1989) Minutes of Council Meeting (12/04/1989) EEC "asked what the Council's decision was. The Council took note of the statement and agreed to revert to this matter at a future meeting." (Original underlined)

C/M/232 (14/06/1989) Minutes of Council Meeting (10/05/1989) EEC "had asked the Council for a ruling on this matter [unilateral action], and had also asked for the establishment of a panel, but to no avail."

L/6530 (31/07/1989) Developments in the Trading System September 1988- February 1989 Report by the Secretariat, para. 40: "At the time of writing, the two sides have agreed, on 18 February 1989, to set up a joint task force that will have 75 days to examine ways to resolve the hormone dispute."

C/M/234 Minutes of Council Meeting EEC asked the US "once again if it could agree to the establishment of a panel." US "inappropriate for the Community to call for panel examination of this issue when talks were taking place on the larger problem of the trade distortions caused by the Community's import ban [Hormones Directive (85/649/EEC)]."

C/M/235 EEC "on top of its request for a panel, the Community urged the United States to put an end to this situation which could not be justified." US: "actively engaged in seeking a bilateral resolution of these disputes, in which both parties had taken trade-restrictive measures on beef products."

C/M/236 (06/11/1989) Minutes of Council Meeting (11/10/1989) US: "the trade damaging act, which had not been allowed to be brought before the appropriate GATT body [Standards Code], was the initial ban on beef imports by the Community". EEC "formally requested that immediately after the present meeting, the Council Chairman and the Director-General conduct consultations with the contracting parties concerned in order to find a solution to this matter."

SR.45/2 (21/12/1989) Summary Record of the Second Meeting of the Forty-Fifth Session of the CP (04/12/1989) Sub-point 14(f)(iii) EEC: "importance to the ongoing consultation procedure which had been agreed, at the Community's request, in the Council". US: "would continue to seek to work in good faith for the resolution of this matter and, in the interim, reiterated the position it had taken at the October Council meeting."