ABSTRACT
The high-profi le World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute on the European Union’s seal import ban has captivated the attention of the international community for over fi ve years. In 2009, Canada requested World Trade Organization (WTO) consultations with the European Union (EU) on the EU seal products ban under the Seal Ban Regulation (SBR) and subsequent amendments, replacements, extensions, implementing measures, and other related measures, 1 and a panel was later established that issued a report in November 2013. 2 This Panel report was appealed, and the WTO’s Appellate Body reached a subsequent decision in June 2014. 3 This chapter intends to revisit the dispute from a legal and economics perspective. Instead of commenting on the merits of the WTO decisions, this
* The authors would like to thank Paolo Davide Farah, Bryan Mercurio, David Wilmshurt, and Mu-Hsiang Yu for comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this chapter. They would also like to thank Haweni Bedada, who provided research assistance. The views expressed by the authors here are personal. This chapter is sponsored by “Standardization and Intellectual Property Management-Key. Universities Research Institute in Humanities and Social Sciences, Zhejiang Province, China.”
