Brazil Files Submission In Retread Case

Brazil has defended its import ban on retreaded tyres on health and environment-related grounds, in its first written submission to the WTO regarding a dispute with the EU, the ICTSD has reported.

In November 2005, the EU formally challenged the WTO consistency of Brazil’s import ban on retreaded tyres, as well as related fines targeting the importation and subsequent marketing, transportation and storage of such tyres. Furthermore, the EU targeted Brazil’s exemption of some countries — Mercosur partners Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay — from these measures, arguing that it violated WTO rules.

At issue are car tyres that have been reprocessed for a second use. Brazil has argued that since retreaded tyres have a shorter life-span than new ones, they are more strongly linked than the latter to the adverse environmental and health effects caused by all waste tyres.

In its 8 June submission, Brazil justified the import ban under a GATT Article general exception for measures necessary to protect human life and health and the environment, arguing that no reasonable alternatives were available. Brazil argued that the exemption for Mercosur countries was necessitated by its obligations under the regional pact, a WTO-authorised customs union. Furthermore, it contended that since those obligations formed part of its domestic legislation, the Mercosur-specific exemption was central to compliance with its international obligations and domestic laws.

According to WTO jurisprudence, such a defence would require Brazil to prove that the measures were indeed ‘necessary,’ and that they were not being applied in an arbitrary or unjustifiably discriminatory fashion.

The first hearing of the panel is expected to take place in early July.