The United States and Mexico each appeals certain issues of law and legal interpretations developed in the Panel Report, United States – Measures Concerning the Importation, Marketing and Sale of Tuna and Tuna Products (the “Panel Report”). The Panel was established to consider a complaint by Mexico regarding the consistency of certain measures imposed by the United States on the importation, marketing, and sale of tuna and tuna products with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (the “GATT 1994”) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (the “TBT Agreement”).

Before the Panel, Mexico challenged the United States Code, Title 16, Section 1385 (the “Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act” or “DPCIA”), the United States Code of Federal Regulations, Title 50, Section 216.91 and Section 216.92 (the “implementing regulations”), and a ruling by a US federal appeals court in Earth Island Institute v. Hogarth (the “Hogarth ruling”) as inconsistent with the United States' obligations under Article 2 of the TBT Agreement and Articles I and III of the GATT 1994. The Panel reasoned that the legal instruments identified by Mexico in its panel request “set out the terms of the US ‘dolphin-safe’ labelling scheme” and considered it appropriate therefore to treat them as a single measure for purposes of its analysis of Mexico's claims and its findings. The Panel thereafter referred to the measure at issue in this dispute as “the US dolphin-safe labelling provisions”.

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