Introductory Note

In 2019 WTO panel and Appellate Body reports were adopted in ten disputes. They involved an unusually broad scope of WTO agreements, going well beyond the “usual” challenges to trade remedy measures. One of the highlights in 2019 was the conclusion of the long-lasting tuna/dolphin dispute, with the United States being deemed to having fully implemented the original rulings by modifying its “dolphin safe” labelling scheme. The other compliance proceedings, both relating to the SCM Agreement, were not as successful, with unresolved issues remaining: the implementation by the United States of the Boeing subsidies rulings and the still murky boundaries for a state-owned company to become a “public body.” The 2019 disputes also involved the WTO consistency of sanitary measures taken by Korea in the aftermath of the Fukushima power plant disaster, a seven-programme tax regime adopted by Brazil, and transit restrictions adopted by Russia for national security reasons. The latter was the first WTO dispute dealing with Article XXI of GATT 1994. Although 2019 was an active year in terms of adopted Appellate Body reports, at the end of the year the composition of the Appellate Body was reduced to one member only.