Reference no: EM133388858

In 2022, the Northeast Community, which consisted of twenty countries, adopted two distinct regimes for the importation of sugar within their Common Market. The first regime offered preferential access to countries within Latin America, Caribbean and Asia. Those specific countries were chosen because of the historical relationship they had with the Northeast Community.

Importantly, the Northeast Community had implemented special import rules for sugar from Latin America, Caribbean and Asian countries. These rules were as follows: zero tariffs on imports from these countries up to two million tonnes, once that amount was passed, then further imports would attract a 2 per cent custom duty for every 1000 kilogram imported.

The Northeast Community also had a second regime which would affect all other countries. Essentially, the Northeast Community would offer tariff free access to sugar coming from Latin America, Caribbean and Asia up to a certain amount. However, countries outside of this grouping were not allowed duty free access, they had to pay a higher duty in order to gain access to countries within the Northeast Community.

Since this tariff free access was only extended to sugar originating in certain Latin America, Caribbean and Asian countries, producers and distributors in Europe and the U.S. disagreed, as they were severely affected by this, since preferential access were not offered to them. As a result, the United States of America and other countries in Europe, requested a panel.

Thinking about the two regimes discussed above, and in the context of the World Trade Organization specifically the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), do you think the actions of the Northeast Community are inconsistent with the GATT?

This case is worth a total of 10 marks. You will be marked based on the following:

Issue: The Issue section identifies the problems and clearly describes the issue(s) that need to be addressed.

Rules: The Rules section identifies the relevant articles and their source of authority. You need to correctly identify the articles.

Application/Analysis: The Application section considers each article/principle identified in the Rules section and explains its relevance to the facts and how it can be applied or distinguished to support logical arguments about how the issue(s) will be resolved.