Brazil — Taxation, European Union v Brazil, Panel report, WT/DS472/R, WT/DS497/R, ITL 163 (WTO 2017), 30th August 2017, World Trade Organization [WTO]

Whether obligations imposed by Article III of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (‘GATT’), the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures, Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods and/or the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures were inapplicable per se to measures aimed at regulating so-called ‘pre-market’ production steps, as opposed to products.

Whether Article III:8(b) of GATT served as an exception to the obligations imposed by, inter alia, Articles III:2 and III:4 of GATT for all subsidies paid exclusively to domestic producers, or whether the exception provided for in Article III:8(b) of GATT was unavailable for subsidies that introduced discrimination between domestic and imported products.

To what extent a party may be deemed to have provided sufficient notice under Paragraph 4(a) of Differential and More Favourable Treatment, Reciprocity, and Fuller Participation of Developing Countries (the ‘Enabling Clause’), including whether a notification made pursuant to Paragraph 2(c) of the Enabling Clause could be sufficient to act as notice for differential treatment later justified under Paragraph 2(b) of the Enabling Clause.