Two-edged sword: the US gasoline case at WTO

Resumen

In 1995, after unsuccessful consultations with the United States, Venezuela and Brazil filed a complaint with the new established World Trade Organization (WTO) to establish a panel to examine whether the United States had violated WTO Agreements. The main issue at stake was the fact that the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulation on the Clean Air Act Amendments 1990 (CAAA – 1990) violated the GATT-94 principle of national treatment by using different measures to determine whether domestic and importers refiners comply with the requirements of the CAAA – 1990. From the United States perspective, the environmental goal of the CAAA – 1990 was to establish an overall quality of the gasoline sold in the US and to protect the health of US citizens living. Thus, this US measure would fall within the exceptions of Article XX – GATT-94.