Panama Restrictions on Costa Rican Ag Violates WTO Rules, Dispute Panel Says
A World Trade Organization dispute panel ruled on Dec. 5 that Panama's phytosanitary restrictions on strawberries, pineapples, bananas, plantains and dairy and meat products from Costa Rica violated WTO rules.
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The panel said all four restrictions cut against the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and were "more trade-restrictive than required to achieve Panama's" appropriate level of protection, given that alternatives proposed by Costa Rica were "reasonably available," achieved the appropriate protection level and were less trade-restrictive. The Costa Rican alternative would allow imports with conditions instead of imposing an all-out import ban.
The panel specifically said the ban on strawberries wasn't a provisional phytosanitary measure since it wasn't adopted "in a situation of insufficient relevant scientific evidence," given that Panama had enough information to assess the risk from the pesticide Oxamyl in Costa Rican strawberries. The measure also was based on a faulty risk assessment that "was not based on scientific principles and was maintained without sufficient scientific evidence," the panel said.
On the restrictions on dairy and meat products, the panel said the measures violated WTO rules, since "Panama incurred delays in the process of renewing the sanitary approvals of" 16 Costa Rican establishments by "delaying to clarify the information that was required to process the renewals, failing to conduct on-site audits, and failing to issue rulings on the renewal requests." The panel also said the measures discriminated against the 16 establishments by giving extensions to the sanitary establishments from Peru and New Zealand but not to Costa Rica.
The panel also said the restriction on fresh pineapples was similarly based on an unscientific risk assessment and also violated WTO rules, since "conditions" in Colombia concerning the pink hibiscus mealybug were similar to the conditions in Costa Rica. As a result, Costa Rican pineapples were discriminated against "vis-a-vis avocados from Colombia," since only the Costa Rican products faced restrictions.
The panel said the restrictions on fresh bananas and plantains were also based on a faulty risk assessment, among other things.