BY SEAN HEALY
In a rare win for environmental issues within the World Trade Organisation, the WTO's Appellate Body on October 22 upheld the legality of a United States ban on fishing practices which endanger the sea turtle.
Malaysia had sought to get the Appellate Body to overturn a June decision by the WTO's Disputes Resolution Panel that the ban was legal under Article XX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which allows for trade-restrictive measures for the purpose of conserving exhaustible natural resources.
Malaysia, along with India, Pakistan and Thailand, launched a complaint in 1996, claiming that the ban, which prohibits the import into the US of shrimp coming from boats without "turtle excluder devices", was an infringement of free trade rules.
A WTO panel ruled in 1998 that the US had the right to impose such a ban but that it had failed to undertake serious negotiations with the four countries before imposing it and called for changes in the way the US implemented the policy.
In October 2000, Malaysia asked the WTO to rule on whether the United States had correctly implemented the original ruling — but the panel found in the US's favour on June 15, provided the US continues negotiations on a multilateral treaty to protect the sea turtle.
The turtle case became a cause celebre for anti-WTO protesters in 1999, when environmental organisations made the threat of a WTO ban on "turtle excluder devices" a major part of its campaign against the multilateral trade organisation in the run-up to its November 1999 meeting in Seattle.