We have been asked to comment on the AB’s decision in Canada Wheat

Canada − Wheat: Discrimination, Non-Commercial Considerations, and the Right to Regulate Through State Trading Enterprises Bernard Hoekman Joel P. Trachtman 1. Introduction 1In the Canada − Wheat case, the WTO Appellate Body delimited the scope of disciplines applicable to state trading enterprises (STEs) under WTO law. The US challenged several Canadian measures. We will focus here on the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) export regime for wheat. The Canada − Wheat case was brought by the US to address certain practices of the CWB. Although Canada lost at the Panel stage on certain GATT Article III:4 grounds, Canada mounted a successful defense in connection with claims regarding the CWB’s behavior as an STE at the Panel stage: the Panel found that the US had failed to establish 2that Canada had violated Article XVII:1(a) or (b). The US appeal addressed the Panel’s interpretation of subparagraph (b) of Article XVII:1, and the Panel’s application of this interpretation to the CWB export regime. Canada’s appeal argued that the Panel inappropriately failed to address the relationship between subparagraph (a) and subparagraph (b) of Article XVII:1, and erroneously assumed that a breach of subparagraph (b) is sufficient to establish a breach of Article XVII:1. 1 Appellate Body Report, Canada – Measures Relating to Exports of Wheat and Treatment of Imported Grain, WT/DS276/AB/R, adopted 27 September ...