A guerra dos pneus: a controvérsia entre Brasil e Comunidades Europeias sobre o comércio internacional de pneus usados

• Main Authors: Lília Luz, Daniel Durante
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal do Paraná 2013-06-01
• Series: Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente
• Subjects: international trade; environment; pneumatic; protectionism; international relations.
• Online Access: http://ojs.c3sl.ufpr.br/ojs2/index.php/made/article/view/28422/20670
• ISSN: 1518-952X; 2176-9109

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has in their structure a body to settle disputes relating to the maintenance of free trade, which is the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). In this paper, we analyze the controversial “Brazil - Measures affecting the importation of restored tires”, conveyed in the Brazilian press under the epithet “The War of the tires,” occurred between the years 2005 and 2007 within the aforementioned body. This is a Brazilian imposition of measures restricting the entry of used or restored tires. The ban was not extended to the MERCOSUR countries due to a decision of the Arbitration Court of the economic bloc, which led Brazil to allow the entry of used and restored tires in these countries. Brazil has argued that this would suit what was allowed by the Article XX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), but the European Communities (EC) understood this as a merely protectionist restrictive measure to trade commerce. The objective here is to investigate whether the adoption of such a measure had actually environmental motive or, on the other hand, sought trade protectionism. It was observed that Brazil really had grounds for the imposition of environmental measures and the EC aimed to use this country as the recipient of its waste tires, which, under rigid internal European legislation, could no longer be disposed in its landfills.