IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rsc/rsceui/2013-32.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Bite the Bullet: Trade Retaliation, EU Jurisprudence and the Law and Economics of 'Taking One for the Team'

Author

Listed:
  • Bernard M. Hoekman
  • Petros C. Mavroidis

Abstract

This paper discusses the Fedon case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which involved a claim for compensation by Fedon (an Italian producer of eye glass cases) from the EU for the imposition of WTO-authorized retaliatory trade barriers by the United States following the failure by the EU to comply with an adverse ruling by the WTO regarding its import-regime for bananas. As a result of the EU non-compliance, European banana distributors and some bananas producers benefitted from WTO-illegal protection, at the expense of a set of EU exporters, including Fedon, that were hit by US countermeasures. By not complying with its international (WTO) obligations, the EU redistributed income across producers in different sectors as well as between suppliers and consumers of bananas. Fedon contested the non-compliance by the EU before the ECJ and sought compensation. This paper assesses the ECJ ruling against Fedon and argues that the ECJ got it wrong, both in terms of legal principle and as a matter of legal technicalities. An alternative approach is proposed that would better balance individual rights to property against the 'general' EU interest whether or not to comply with adverse WTO rulings.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernard M. Hoekman & Petros C. Mavroidis, 2013. "Bite the Bullet: Trade Retaliation, EU Jurisprudence and the Law and Economics of 'Taking One for the Team'," RSCAS Working Papers 2013/32, European University Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2013/32
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/27034/RSCAS_2013_32.pdf?sequence=1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/27034
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nuno Limão & Kamal Saggi, 2018. "Tariff retaliation versus financial compensation in the enforcement of international trade agreements," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Policy Externalities and International Trade Agreements, chapter 12, pages 337-349, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Petros C. Mavroidis & Patrick A. Messerlin & Jasper M. Wauters, 2008. "The Law and Economics of Contingent Protection in the WTO," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12731.
    3. Grossman, Gene M. & Mavroidis, Petros C., 2003. "Dispute settlement corner: United States – Section 110(5) of the US Copyright Act, Recourse to Arbitration under Article 25 of the DSU: would've or should've? Impaired benefits due to copyright infrin," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(2), pages 233-249, July.
    4. Levy, Philip I & Srinivasan, T N, 1996. "Regionalism and the (Dis)advantage of Dispute-Settlement Access," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 93-98, May.
    5. Alessandra Arcuri; Sara Poli, 2010. "What Price for the Community Enforcement of WTO Law?," EUI-LAW Working Papers 1, European University Institute (EUI), Department of Law.
    6. Robert Z. Lawrence, 2003. "Crimes and Punishments?: Retaliation under the WTO," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 372, April.
    7. Alberto Alemanno, 2008. "At the end of the tunnel there is ... darkness: The European Court of Justice denies EC liability for WTO non-compliance," Post-Print hal-00637100, HAL.
    8. Marco Bronckers & Naboth van den Broek, 2005. "Financial Compensation in the WTO," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(1), pages 101-126, March.
    9. Grossman, Gene M. & Mavroidis, Petros C., 2003. "US – Section 110(5) Copyright Act: United States – Section 110(5) of the US Copyright Act, Recourse to Arbitration under Article 25 of the DSU: Would’ve or Should’ve? Impaired Benefits due to Copyrigh," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(S1), pages 281-299, January.
    10. Rubini, Luca, 2009. "The Definition of Subsidy and State Aid: WTO and EC Law in Comparative Perspective," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199533398.
    11. Hoekman, Bernard M. & Kostecki, Michel M., 2009. "The Political Economy of the World Trading System," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, edition 3, number 9780199553778.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nuno Limão & Kamal Saggi, 2018. "Size inequality, coordination externalities and international trade agreements," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Policy Externalities and International Trade Agreements, chapter 11, pages 319-336, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Kevin x.d. Huang & Engin Volkan & M. ege Yazgan, 2013. "Nonhomothetic Preferences with Habit Formation in Nondurable and Durable Consumption: Implications for Sectoral Comovement," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 13-00002, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    3. Tadashi Ito, 2007. "NAFTA and productivity convergence between Mexico and the US," IHEID Working Papers 26-2007, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies, revised 27 Nov 2007.
    4. Nuno Limão & Kamal Saggi, 2018. "Tariff retaliation versus financial compensation in the enforcement of international trade agreements," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Policy Externalities and International Trade Agreements, chapter 12, pages 337-349, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Kyle Bagwell & Chad P. Bown & Robert W. Staiger, 2016. "Is the WTO Passé?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1125-1231, December.
    6. Bown, Chad P., 2014. "Trade policy instruments over time," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6757, The World Bank.
    7. Bagwell, Kyle & Staiger, Robert W., 2010. "Backward stealing and forward manipulation in the WTO," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 49-62, September.
    8. Staiger, Robert & Bagwell, Kyle & Bown, Chad, 2015. "Is the WTO Passé?," CEPR Discussion Papers 10672, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Klimenko, Mikhail & Ramey, Garey & Watson, Joel, 2008. "Recurrent trade agreements and the value of external enforcement," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 475-499, March.
    10. Chad P. Bown & Baybars Karacaovali & Patricia Tovar, 2014. "What Do We Know About Preferential Trade Agreements and Temporary Trade Barriers?," Working Papers 201418, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    11. Hartigan, James C., 2018. "Punching out of one's weight class? Cross agreement retaliation in the WTO," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 274-288.
    12. repec:wsr:wpaper:y:2012:i:085 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Benjamin Liebman & Kasaundra Tomlin, 2015. "World Trade Organization sanctions, implementation, and retaliation," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 715-745, March.
    14. Kyle Bagwell & Robert W. Staiger, 2016. "The Design of Trade Agreements," NBER Working Papers 22087, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2010. "Services Trade and Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 642-692, September.
    16. Nathan Jensen, 2007. "International institutions and market expectations: Stock price responses to the WTO ruling on the 2002 U.S. steel tariffs," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 261-280, September.
    17. Thomas Norman & Heinrich H. Nax, 2011. "Leading the Way: Coalitional Stability in Technological Cooperation & Sequential Climate Policy," Economics Series Working Papers 585, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    18. Roy, Jayjit, 2017. "On the environmental consequences of intra-industry trade," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 50-67.
    19. Bernard Hoekman & Stefano Inama, 2017. "Rules of Origin as Non-Tariff Measures: Towards Greater Regulatory Convergence," RSCAS Working Papers 2017/45, European University Institute.
    20. Paul John, Pena, 2019. "An ASEAN Digital Single Market: Boosting the Aspiration for a Single Market in the Digital Era," MPRA Paper 95948, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Bernard Hoekman, 2014. "The Bali Trade Facilitation Agreement and Rulemaking in the WTO: Milestone, Mistake or Mirage?," RSCAS Working Papers 2014/102, European University Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade agreements; retaliation; dispute settlement; compensation; EU law; WTO;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2013/32. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: RSCAS web unit (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rsiueit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.