Analyzing the Legality of Australia's Fishing Act Under GATT Rules

This case study analyzes the Fishing Conservation and Management Act 1991 of Australia, examining its compliance with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The study investigates whether amendments to the Act, aimed at protecting endangered species within Australia's exclusive economic zone, are permissible under GATT's trade restriction provisions. It explores relevant articles of GATT, including those related to environmental protection and national interests, and outlines the dispute resolution process under the World Trade Organization (WTO), specifically the role of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). The analysis concludes that the amendments are likely legal, as GATT allows for measures to protect endangered resources. The study uses references to support its findings, providing a comprehensive overview of the legal and trade implications of the Australian fishing act within the international trade framework.

TRADE
RESTRICTIONS

 The Fishing conservation and Management Act
1991, of Australia looks after the conservation of
all the fisheries resources and sees that they are
being used in a sustainable way.
 Any illegal activities related to fishing in the
Australian fishing zone are strictly prohibited
under this act (Emery et al., 2017).
 This is done because the Australian fishing zone is
considered as the economic zone that is
exclusively available to the country. The act works
under the commonwealth umbrella.
Introduction

 The General agreements on tariff and trade
(GATT) are an international regulatory body.
 It was formed with the sole objective of
improving trade internationally by removing
and reducing tariff barriers (Bhagwati, 2017).

 The DSU is a body for resolution of disputes
that may arise between various countries in
relation to any consultations under the World
Trade Organization (Shaffer, Elsig and Puig,
2016).

 This study is focused on identifying if the
amendments made under the Fishing
conservation and management act 1991 is
illegal under the GATT that looks after all
international trades and to understand the
process of the DSU in resolving and
identifying the above mentioned problem.
Aim of the study

 The main objectives of the Fishing
conservation and management act 1991, is
to prohibit any form of harm to the most
endangered species of the country in
Australia’s exclusive economic zone.
 This act prohibits any form of illegal fishing
activity in the waters between Indonesia and
Australia (Wilson, 2016).
Fishing conservation act

 The Australian navy and the customers and
protection services in the borders of
Australia prohibit any such acts in order to
protect the country’s fisheries resources.
 Seafood industry is an important sector foe
the country as most of its revenue comes
from it.

 The GATT trade restrictions include:
 Allowing a few trade restrictions in terms of
quantitative restrictions if they are made for
protecting the country’s resources or in case
of Balance of payments and other cases
(Meyer, 2017).
 The members of the WTO have confirmed
that they maintain some quantitative
restriction for protecting their environment
and also in other cases (Isaac and Menon,
2017).
Trade restrictions under
GATT

 The articles XX: (b) GATT 1994, provides for
taking necessary measures for protection of
any form of life on earth including the
environment,
 The article XX: (g) GATT 1994, includes
environmental conservation measures
 The article XX1: (b) GATT 1994, allows
countries to take necessary actions for
protecting of their essential interests.

 The process of resolving various disputes
includes two ways of doing the same: (1)
either both the parties agree on same point
in case of the bilateral consultations,
 (2) or through Adjudication, including various
panel implementations and reports by
appellate bodies that once adopted by the
dispute resolution body legally binds the
parties.
Dispute Resolution process

 The main steps of the process for resolving
disputes are:
 Consultation between the parties
 Adjudication of the same
 Implementation of the decisions taken under
adjudication

 After considering all the relevant facts and
laws relating to both the fisheries protection
and the provisions of the trade restrictions, it
can be said that the amendments made
under the Fishing conservation and
management act 1991 is not illegal under
the GATT because according to GATT any act
of country relating to protection of its
endangered resources are considered as
legal. This amendment to the act was done
to protect the endangered string rays of the
country waters.

Are the amendments
illegal?