20 year old dispute resolved between Chile and EU

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and Chilean Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear have agreed to bring to an end a 20 year old dispute on spirits, and reached an amicable settlement to end their so-called swordfish dispute, EU Businessweek reports.

The deal means that EU spirits such as whisky will no longer be discrimated against in the Chilean market.

On 23 January, the Chilean Congress adopted a new alcoholic tax law that will replace the regime condemned by the WTO in December 1999 for discriminating against European spirits.

Now European spirits compete on equal footing with locally produced spirits, in particular pisco, in the Chilean market.

Negotiations also resolved the "swordfish dispute" covering both access for EU fishing vessels to Chilean ports and bilateral and multilateral scientific and technical co-operation on conservation of swordfish stocks.

Pending ratification of this arrangement, the EU will now request a suspension of panel proceedings within the WTO launched in November and Chile will suspend proceedings before the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), pending the enforcement of this arrangement which also covers access to ports.

Commissioner Lamy said: "this is good news for EU spirits producers who will again be able to compete on level terms in Chile.

Following on from our deal on swordfish, we have managed to wipe the slate of bilateral trade disputes clean, so we can now focus exclusively on our important bilateral trade negotiations and on working together to launch a new multilateral round in the WTO".