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WTO NEWS: 2001 NEWS ITEMS

Dispute Settlement Body 16 May 2001

“Lamb” reports adopted

The WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), on 16 May 2001, adopted the Appellate Body Report and the Panel report on “lamb”.

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NOTE:
This summary has been prepared by the WTO Secretariat’s Information and Media Relations Division to help public understanding about developments in WTO disputes. It is not a legal interpretation of the issues, and it is not intended as a complete account of the issues. These can be found in the reports themselves and in the minutes of the Dispute Settlement Body’s meetings.


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Case DS177/178: United States — Safeguard measures on imports of fresh, chilled or frozen lamb meat from New Zealand and Australia.

Australia and New Zealand, the complaining parties in this case, welcomed the adoption of the reports which found the measures inconsistent with US' obligations. They said they expected prompt compliance by the US and the early removal of the safeguard measures on lamb meat.

The US said it continued to believe that its safeguard measures on lamb meat met its obligations under the WTO Safeguard Agreement.

 

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Panel requests deferred

The following requests for the establishment of panels were deferred: Case DS211: Egypt — Definitive anti-dumping measures on steel rebar from Turkey, a request by Turkey; Case DS227: Peru — Taxes on cigarettes, a request from Chile.

 

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Status reports: Surveillance of implementation of recommendations adopted by the DSB

Case DS27: European Communities — Regime for the importation, sale and distribution of bananas

The EC announced that a solution had been found to the banana dispute to which all the parties agreed: an import regime based on three tariff-rated quotas allocated on the basis of historical licensing starting from 1 July 2001, followed by a tariff-only regime from 1 January 2006 onwards.

Parties to the dispute welcomed the progress made towards resolving this dispute and stated that they would follow closely EC's implementation.

 

Case DS76: Japan — Measures affecting agricultural products

Japan said that it was in the process of finalizing its administrative steps necessary for implementation.

The US expressed disappointment that Japan had not yet completed its implementation of the DSB's recommendations.

Australia and the EC expressed concern about Japan's continued delay to implement.



Case DS34: Turkey — Restrictions on imports of textile and clothing products

Turkey and India said that they continued to hold discussions on Turkey's compliance with the DSB's recommendations.

India said that if a mutually agreed solution was not found within the next few days, India would exercise its rights under the bilateral agreement (see document WT/DS34/13).

 

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Next meeting

The next regular meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body will take place on 20 June 2001.

How to search for and download official documents

To search for documents on disputes follow this link to access the WTO on-line document database.

Insert the codes indicated (in particular, the dispute case number, e.g. “DS999”) in the “document symbol” window of the search engine.

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