L’exception de moralité publique dans les accords de l’OMC et son application dans le différend canado-européen sur la chasse au phoque
Among other criticisms, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is often blamed for not taking sufficient account of non-trade concerns, which express consumers and States’ societal or cultural values, under the pretext of international trade liberalization. Concerning trade in goods, though, GATT article XX provides certain general exceptions, allowing States to justify trade-restrictive measures intended to protect public morals. Now, this rarely-invoked "public morals clause" is at the very heart of a pending trade dispute between Canada and the European Union (EU), after the EU decided in 2009 to ban products derived from seal hunt, which is seen as cruel by many Europeans. In this report, the author tries to predict what the outcome of this dispute could be. To this end, the report first examines the public morals concept in public international law. Then, it describes in details the context of this conflict, in particular at the political level. Finally, the author makes an assessment of an article XX defense, following the method adopted to date by the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). This report concludes that the DSB is likely to consider that the challenged measure aims at addressing a real concern about the protection of public morals in Europe; however, in the author’s view, the European ban will not be deemed "necessary" to achieve this end under GATT article XX. Indeed, the DSB will most likely consider that the European Union had less trade-restrictive available options that are more compatible with its obligations under the GATT. Regrettably, the author believes that the ORD decision in this dispute will not satisfy those who call for a better recognition of legitimate non-trade concerns by the WTO.
Public international law WTO Public morals Trade dispute Seal