Getting Your Ducks in a Row: The Case for More Inclusive Renegotiations in EU – Poultry Meat (China)

This paper critiques a Panel ruling that was permissive in allowing the EU to exclude China from the renegotiations of several tariff lines of poultry meat and the related allocation of new tariff-rate quotas. The EU’s basis for exclusion was that China lacked a principal or substantial supplying interest in the modified tariff lines. The Panel’s ruling supported China for only two tariff lines in which China eventually served 50 percent of the EU market after certain SPS measures expired, on the narrow basis that this import increase should have been considered a special factor in the TRQ allocation. The paper argues that the Panel ruled too narrowly by disregarding China’s broader claims for a principal or substantial supplying interest. An interpretation consistent with the object and purpose of the GATT supports utilizing a broader set of evidence in China’s claim as a principal or substantial supplier for renegotiations of tariff schedules. Allowing nations to use tariff-rate quotas to prevent emerging markets from achieving a substantial supplying interest is a significant obstacle to the WTO’s purpose. The Panel’s ruling will be important for future tariff-rate quota renegotiations, such as those that would be necessary under Brexit.