The World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement body made public its ruling on the EU steel safeguard on Friday 29 April.
This is a two-part saga between Turkey and the EU, which are battling it out at the WTO in two separate dispute cases. The first was initiated by Turkey, which considers the European safeguard measure on steel to be illegal, while the second, on pharmaceuticals, was initiated by the EU, which considers Turkey’s measures to be discriminatory.
On the first issue, Ankara won in part: the panel ruled that the EU’s safeguard measure was incompatible with two articles of the WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and with one article of the Agreement on Safeguards. The Commission has not demonstrated that the increase in steel imports was the result of “unexpected developments”, according to the panel. It added that the Commission had also failed to demonstrate that the European industry was threatened with serious damage.
However, the panel rejected several requests by Turkey to find the safeguard measure inconsistent with other GATT rules and refrained from ruling on other Turkish requests.
While Turkey had asked the panel to require the removal of the safeguard measure, the judgment only requires the EU to bring its safeguard measure into line with the rules. The panel stated that it did not wish to rule on whether or not the safeguard measure should be removed completely.
Furthermore, while the EU and Turkey had agreed in March to use an appeal procedure for the two disputes between them (the one on the safeguard measure and the one on pharmaceuticals) (see EUROPE 12920/17), both parties have reversed their position on the first dispute, which will not be appealed.
Case of discriminated European pharmaceuticals
In contrast, the dispute over Turkish measures on pharmaceuticals from the EU will be subject to an alternative appeal procedure to the usual Appellate Body, which has been blocked for several years. Turkey therefore formally communicated the use of this procedure on 28 April.
In doing so, it made public the first instance ruling of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body. In this case, the EU accuses Turkey of not reimbursing pharmaceutical products from the EU as part of its health system. This time, the panel agrees with the EU that Turkey’s prioritisation of certain pharmaceutical products is not in line with the WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
As decided by the EU and Turkey, this dispute is now being submitted to an alternative appeal panel composed of three arbitrators. They have 90 days to make their decision. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)