Do protecionismo à proteção

: PPMS : process and production methods : e o seu impacto na relação entre a organização mundial do comércio e o ambiente

Abstract

PPMs, trade measures that discriminate between products depending on the processes and production methods used, test the acceptance of WTO law to non-economic concerns. It has been interpreted that the use of different processes and production methods that do not alter the characteristics of the final product, even those that aim to protect the environment, do not make the products “un-like”. It is therefore a question of discrimination between "like" products inconsistent with the GATT obligations of Articles I and III. Even so, the measure can be justified if it falls within one of the exceptions of article XX and respects the requirements of the chapeau. For a long time, it was understood that considering PPMs with an objective external to the qualities of the final product consistent with International Trade Law, put the existence of the multilateral trading system at risk, and this was the interpretation carried out in the Tuna/Dolphin cases. Subsequent to the reports of these cases the idea persisted that PPMs unrelated to the final product, were illegal regardless of the purpose they were intended to protect. In 1995, with the creation of the WTO and the inclusion in its Preamble of the objective of sustainable development, the conditions for a new interpretation of the legality of PPMs were created. It was in 1998, with the Appellate Body report in the Shrimp/Turtle case, that the idea of automatic illegality of PPMs was dismissed. Despite considering the US measure that discriminated between domestic and imported shrimp products caught using techniques that would cause the incidental death of sea turtles inconsistent with WTO law, such a decision by the Appellate Body was based on the fact that the measure was applied in order to discriminate between members and not for having an environmental objective. This interpretation represented a change in the debate on the acceptance of PPMs by WTO law, and shed new light on the eternal conflict between "trade and the environment".

Date of Award	21 Sept 2020
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Manuel Fontaine Campos (Supervisor)