CYIL vol. 8 (2017)

CYIL 8 ȍ2017Ȏ WTO IN CONTEXT OF BREXIT The message of these decisions is thus clear, the EU member states do have their own rights and obligations in the WTO, notwithstanding their membership in the EU and the fact that the EU annexed their schedules for them to the GATT 1994. 46 Separation of the rights and obligations from the EU bundle Though it is agreed here that WTO rights and obligations do belong to the UK (as any other EU member state), the identification of some of these rights and their separation from the EU package represents a different challenge. Since the UK shall remain being an ordinary WTO member it will be unproblematic to identify and “allocate” those rights and obligations which apply to all WTO members indiscriminately, such as the most favoured nation obligation provided by Article I of the GATT 1994. 47 In a similar nature, the separation of the current tariffs ad valorem should not cause much difficulties should the UK maintain the same level of these tariffs. 48 But the difficulties arrive particularly in relation to identification and allocation of the current tariff rate quotas from the EU bundle to the UK. The WTO Agreement prohibits all import quota, i.e. all quantitative restrictions on imported goods. 49 In contrast, the tariff rate quotas (hereinafter TRQ) are not a quantitative restriction per se, and consequently are not prohibited by Article XI or other provisions of the GATT 1994. 50 The TRQs are two-level tariffs. The first tariff is lower and is assigned to a limited volume of imported goods (in quota tariff), while the second tariff is higher and cover all the subsequent import which exceeds the quota (out of quota tariff) 51 . For example, according to the current EUTRQ for high quality beef, the EU commitment is 37,800 tonnes of imported beef charged 20% import duty. But for the beef imported outside the quota the tariff is significantly higher: €2,700–€4,700 per tonne. 52 There are almost 100 TRQs in the EU schedule, most of the (86) are concerned with agriculture products. 53 Some of the EU’s TRQ are offered to all WTO members on a non- 6. establishing the World Trade Organisation, approved on behalf of the Community, as regards matters within its competence, in Council Decision 94/800/EC of 22 December 1994 (OJ 1994L 336, p. 1), JUDGMENT OF THE COURT, 16 June 1998. 46 BARTELS, Lorand, The UK status of the WTO after Brexit , footnote 13. 47 BARTELS, Lorand, Understanding the UK’s position agter Brexit (Part II – The Consequences) , 26 September 2016, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development. Available at: http://www.ictsd.org/opinion/ understanding-the-uk-0. 48 HESTERMEYER, Holger, ORTINO, Federico , Towards a UK Trade Policy Post-Brexit: The Beginning of a Complex Journey , King’s College London Law School Research Paper No. 2017-04, 30 October 2016. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2861488. 49 Article XI of the GATT 1994 (General Elimination of Quantitative Restrictions). 50 VAN DEN BOSSE, Peter, PRÉVOST, Denise , Essentials of WTO Law , Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp. 61-64. 51 DE GORTER, Harry, KLIAUGA, Erika, Reducing Tariffs versus Expanding Tariff Rate Quotas In Agricultural Trade Reform and the Doha Development Agenda, edited by Kym Anderson and Will Martin, A co- publication of the World Bank and Palgrave Macmillan. Available at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/ INTTRADERESEARCH/Resources/Ch5_AgTradeBook_deGorter_Kliauga.pdf. 52 UNGPHAKORN, Peter, The Hilton beef quota: a taste of what post-Brexit UK faces in the WTO , Trade Blog, August 10, 2016. Available at: https://tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/hilton-beef-quota/. 53 Ibid. , and WTO Document, Tariff Other Quotas, Background Paper by the WTO Secretariat, TN/AG/S/5, 21 March 2002.

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