The Brazil – Taxation and Charges panel report has rekindled a long-standing debate over the scope and meaning of the public morals exception in the GATT/WTO legal system. This article offers two criticisms of the panel report. First, the report has set an exceedingly low threshold for the identification of public morals. Second, the Panel ’ s hands-off approach is likely to trigger a slippery slope risk of what sorts of objectives could be properly called ‘ public morals ’ .
Global Trade and Customs Journal