North America

As was widely expected, on April 7, 2005, the WTO Appellate Body substantially reversed an earlier Panel decision condemning a US ban on internet gambling.[1]

 

On March 3, 2005, the WTO Appellate Body (AB) issued a landmark decision[1] interpreting key WTO provisions on agricultural subsidies and upholding a prior panel ruling finding various US cotton subsidies to be WTO illegal. In September 2004 the panel, in a challenge by Brazil, had ruled that various US agricultural programs constituted illegal subsidies under the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, the Agreement on Agriculture and Article XVI of the GATT 1994.[2]

 

Background

 

The Bush administration's proposed budget for FY 2006 contains appropriation lines for resuming research on the nuclear bunker-buster. This proposal is likely to renew the heated debate within the United States over the role and shape of U.S. nuclear forces. It also raises an important legal issue: does this research cause the United States to run afoul of its disarmament obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)?