Are Food Products Such As Wine with Carbon or Food Mile Labels ‘Like’ Wine without Such Labels?
If mandatory carbon footprinting or food miles labelling were introduced into a key export market such as the UK or US, one question which would arise is whether applying such a regulatory requirement to sales of imported products might attract art III:4. This would only occur if labelled and unlabelled wine were regarded as ‘like products’. Like products are products in a competitive relationship with each other.[108] Four general criteria are relevant: (i) the properties, nature and quality of the products; (ii) the end uses of the products; (iii) consumers’ tastes and habits … in respect of the products; and (iv) the tariff classification of the products.[109] Applying the above criteria to asbestos-containing products, the WTO Appellate Body has found that the toxicity of these products rendered them ‘unlike’ other building products despite similar end uses.[110] Nevertheless, as previously outlined, while a number of wholesalers and retailers in major Australian wine markets are
