Prevention and Settlement of International Trade Disputes Between the European Union and the United States

Abstract

This Essay reflects recent international trade disputes between the European Community and the United States and classifies these disputes according to their characteristic elements in order to elaborate more effective strategies for the prevention or settlement of future disputes. The so far twelve GATT and WTO panel, appellate, and arbitration reports on the European Community’s import restrictions for bananas could have been avoided if, in the more than forty complaints before the European Community Court of Justice and in the numerous national court proceedings against the same import restrictions on bananas, the judges would have construed and applied European Community law in conformity with the precise and unconditional GATT/WTO obligations of the EC. The settlement of the EC-U.S. disputes over U.S. trade sanctions under the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, as well as over the discriminatory government procurement practices by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts vis-à-vis persons doing business with Myanmar, illustrate the importance of dispute prevention strategies. WTO panel proceedings are also sub-optimal means for the settlement of disputes over nondiscriminatory health protection measures, such as the EC import restrictions for hormone-fed beef and genetically modified organisms. This Essay concludes with proposals for EC-U.S. initiatives to strengthen dispute prevention strategies.