First Written Submissions

1. Mexico

(a) Introduction

4.1 For over twenty years, yellowfin tuna caught by the Mexican fishing fleet in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (“ETP”) have been denied effective access to the US market by virtue of various GATT and WTO inconsistent measures. Sales of Mexican yellowfin tuna in the US market have been severely restricted. Initially, the exclusion took the form of an absolute embargo on the importation of Mexican tuna and tuna products. Notwithstanding that the embargo was lifted, the United States found a new way to prevent Mexican tuna from competing in the US market.

4.2 The essence of the current dispute relates to the prohibition of the use of a US dolphin-safe label on imports of tuna products from Mexico, while such a label is permitted to be used on tuna products from other countries, including the United States.

4.3 Even though Mexico has maintained a sound and environmentally sustainable method for fishing for tuna and participated in all multilateral initiatives to protect dolphins while fishing for tuna, Mexican tuna products are prohibited by the US measures from using a dolphin-safe label, while tuna caught in other fisheries that have not adopted comparable measures to protect dolphins are able to benefit from a dolphin-safe label.

4.4 The US measures are inconsistent with the fundamental obligations of non-discrimination contained in Articles I:1 and III:4 of the GATT, because they grant other foreign tuna and tuna products an advantage in the US marketplace that has not been accorded immediately and unconditionally to Mexican tuna and tuna products, and accord Mexican tuna and tuna products treatment less favourable than that accorded to US tuna and tuna products in the US marketplace.