WTO Hears US Appeal On COOL

Feb 20, 2015

Canadian, US and Mexican officials appeared before the WTO’s Appellate Body this week in Geneva.

The US is hoping the panel will overturn previous rulings against COOL by the WTO, If the U.S. loses the appeal, Canada would be in a position to launch retaliatory tariffs.

John Masswohl the CCA’s Director of International Relations says they expect the panels written decision to be released to all parties in late April.

"Once that final report is public and adopted by the WTO, then Canada and Mexico will be in a position to request authority to retaliate. Thought there would be a little bit of an arbitration, the authorized amounts, how much trade can we put tariffs on, that probably takes us to about July that Canada would be in that position to put those tariffs on."

Masswohl says this was the last kick at the can for the U-S to prevent retaliatory measures, adding that Canadian officials who have been arguing the case for us have done a tremendous job.

He's confident the Appellate Panel will uphold the previous rulings.

Source: PortageOnline

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