Does Food Miles Labelling or Carbon Footprinting Lead to Discrimination against Imported Products?
Carbon footprinting and food miles labelling apply equally to imported and domestic products. Nevertheless, measures need not directly discriminate against imported products in order to breach art III:4. According to the WTO Appellate Body, ‘[w]hether or not imported products are treated “less favourably” than like domestic products should be assessed instead by examining whether a measure modifies the conditions of competition in the relevant market to the detriment of imported products’.[126] Thus in EC — Trademarks and Geographical Indications[127] European regulations that limited the legal protection for geographical indications in relation to imported agricultural products and foodstuffs by imposing more onerous requirements[128] upon exporting producers than those which applied to European Community producers were found to breach the national treatment principle embedded within GATT 1994 art III:4 as well as TRIPS Agreement art III:1.[129] Even so, it must be demonstrated that t
