Law Commons^™

The article analyses the compatibility of various regulatory mechanisms provided by the new Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) with the requirements of WTO law, in particular those included in the TBT and TRIPS Agreements. After introducing basic provisions of the directive and summarizing the concerns raised by some WTO Members during meetings of the TBT Committee and the TRIPS Council, the article discusses in more detail the merits of those claims. It finds that concerns expressed by the WTO Members are generally overstated, as most TPD provisions, except for the temporal menthol exception, are WTO compatible. The article also notes that …

The REACH Regulation is one of the most complex regulatory frameworks ever designed by the EU. The Regulation intends to comprehensively address, for the first time in history, the health and environmental risks posed by chemicals. It imposes certain registration, evaluation and authorization requirements for both imported and domestically produced chemical substances. On international level, the Regulation has been met with strong criticism coming from many of the EU’s trading partners. Although countries in general have acknowledged the legitimacy of the objectives sought by the EU, they have expressed numerous concerns regarding the necessity and proportionality of the new system. …

This article analyzes the problem of applicability of the SPS Agreement and its relationship with the TBT Agreement and GATT 1994. In this context, special attention is given to the panel report in EC – Biotech Products. The reason for such an approach is twofold. First, it was the first panel which comprehensively analyzed the conditions of applicability of the SPS Agreement, and second, some parts of its analysis are disappointing and not well reasoned. This article recognizes that the conditions of applicability of the SPS Agreement were conceptualized by the case law very broadly. The author, while accepting parts …