Coercive Economic Measures
The Faroe Islands' WTO complaint against the EU related to herring is going to be really interesting. We might finally get some guidance on an issue I find challenging: How to deal with "coercive economic measures." Here's how the panel request in the case starts:
1. On 4 November 2013, the Kingdom of Denmark in respect of the Faroe Islands ("the
Faroe Islands") requested consultations with the European Union concerning the use by the
European Union of coercive economic measures in relation to Atlanto-Scandian herring (Clupea
Harengus). ...
There are no WTO provisions that are explicitly designed to address the problem of such measures, so the issue becomes how to apply more general provisions to measures that are defined by some as "coercive." The facts of the Herring case make me think that this could be the clearest case ever on such issues. Nevertheless, it occurs to me that we could probably use some provisions that have been developed just for this problem.