Luxembourg, 14/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Court of First Instance has just published a press release in which it underlines the fact that it has taken a decision for the first time on the interpretation to be made on the obstacles to trade (ROC) of 1994 on the framework of World Trade Organisation.
In the FICF ruling, involving the Fédération des industries condimentaires de France, the court confirmed the European Commission's decision to not intervene against US reprisals in the US impacting on prepared mustard imports from France. These reprisals consist of an additional customs duty of 100% on certain prepared mustard products. They were set up after the World Trade Organisation (WTO), following a complaint from the USA, which declared that the Community regulation went against its rules by banning the use of hormones used in rearing animals. The USA decided to not apply this measure to products from the United Kingdom.
The Court of First Instance says that the Commission correctly took into account all elements contained in the notion of a barrier to trade and concluded fairly that there had not been any specific Community interest in criticising the context of trade barriers engendering unfair trade practices present in the ROC regulation as British mustard export were so low in volume (paragraph 7 of press release) (also see EUROPE du 7 August 2001).