Abstract
The Panel Report in the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute United States - Measures Concerning the Importation, Marketing and Sale of Tuna and Tuna Products (hereinafter 'US - Tuna II') was released on 15 September 2011. This case, which concerned the US's 'dolphin-safe' tuna labelling programme, was important to WTO watchers for several reasons. In particular, it addressed several issues of first impression regarding the scope of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) (hereinafter 'TBT Agreement') and contributed another piece to the ongoing puzzle of how to balance international trade obligations with domestic regulatory space in the WTO. The authors contend that the Panel Report supports the idea that labelling is a 'safe' option for creating regulatory policies that may comply with WTO standards, but the fact that the measure was ultimately defeated means that policymakers will have to think carefully about how to design their labelling schemes in order to avoid incompatibility with their international trade obligations.
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