III.2 Evaluating the Appellate Body’s Intrusive Approach in US Tuna II – III.2.1 What constitutes a International Standard’ in the TBT Agreement? ‘relevant The WTO obligation to use relevant international standards as a basis for domestic technical regulations is a continuous one, in the sense that WTO Members have an ongoing obligation to reassess existing technical regulations in light of new or revised international standards. Despite the fact that different approaches and procedures are adopted by international standardizing bodies in their standardization activities, the obligation for WTO Members to use relevant international standards is the same. Because international standards have normative value in designing and implementing municipal standards, what constitutes an international standard has become an important threshold question in TBT-related disputes. It is in that the Appellate Body has for the first time outlined some signposts for US Tuna II – the determination of whether a standard at issue is an standard’ for the purpose ‘international of the TBT Agreement. Although the TBT Agreement provides definitions to in ‘standard’ Annex 1.2 and body’ in Annex 1.4, there is no explicit definition of ‘international standard’ in the TBT Agreement. The introductory clause of Annex 1 provides ‘international that, unless the terms are given definitions in the TBT Agreement, the terms shall have the same meaning as given in the ISO/IEC Guide 2:1991 (the Thus, the Guide ‘Guide’). constitutes important context for dispute settlement purposes by directing the judiciary to have recourse to a non-WTO document to clarify certain TBT terms. The term ‘international standard’ is defined in the Guide as standard that is adopted by an international ‘a standardizing/standards organization and made available to the public’. Since Annex 1.2 of the TBT Agreement stipulates that a is to be approved by a not ‘standard’ ‘body’, as used in the Guide, and that a specific definition in the TBT Agreement ‘organization’ prevails upon the Guide, the Appellate Body concluded that for the purpose of the TBT
III.2 Evaluating the Appellate Body’s Intrusive Approach in US – Tuna II III.2.1 What constitutes a ‘relevant International Standard’ in the TBT Agreement? The WTO obligation to use relevant international standards as a basis for domestic technical regulations is a continuous one, in the sense that WTO Members have an ongoing obligation to reassess existing technical regulations in light of new or revised international standards. Despite the fact that different approaches and procedures are adopted by international standardizing bodies in their standardization activities, the obligation for WTO Members to use relevant international standards is the same. Because international standards have normative value in designing and implementing municipal standards, what constitutes an international standard has become an important threshold question in TBT-related disputes. It is in US – Tuna II that the Appellate Body has for the first time outlined some signposts for the determination of whether a standard at issue is an ‘international standard’ for the purpose of the TBT Agreement. Although the TBT Agreement provides definitions to ‘standard’ in Annex 1.2 and ‘international body’ in Annex 1.4, there is no explicit definition of ‘international standard’ in the TBT Agreement. The introductory clause of Annex 1 provides that, unless the terms are given definitions in the TBT Agreement, the terms shall have the same meaning as given in the ISO/IEC Guide 2:1991 (the ‘Guide’). Thus, the Guide constitutes important context for dispute settlement purposes by directing the judiciary to have recourse to a non-WTO document to clarify certain TBT terms. The term ‘international standard’ is defined in the Guide as ‘a standard that is adopted by an international standardizing/standards organization and made available to the public’. Since Annex 1.2 of the TBT Agreement stipulates that a ‘standard’ is to be approved by a ‘body’, not ‘organization’ as used in the Guide, and that a specific definition in the TBT Agreement prevails upon the Guide, the Appellate Body concluded that for the purpose of the TBT
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