Brussels, 28/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - On 15 May in Geneva, Brazil will present its first request to obtain binding arbitration from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on the legality of the European sugar regime, which has also been disputed by Australia and Thailand, said an informed source on Monday.
This procedure, which aims to lead to the creation of a dispute panel, will seal the break-down of consultations- which precede the launch of the dispute settlement procedure- in which representatives from Australia, Thailand and ACP states also took part.
It is likely that the EU and its ACP partners will block the dispute settlement body from accepting this initial request, but they can only do this once, as the second request is automatically endorsed by the 146 members.