In approaching the issues involved in Brazil´s GATT Article XX defense, the Panel will find valuable aid in considering the life-cycle impacts of retreaded tires. Indeed, the environmental impacts of production, marketing, use, and– particularly- disposal of tires shed critical light on the public health impacts of trade in retreaded tires. A life-cycle approach to the legal issues of the instant case is also consonant with the principle of sustainable development, as written into the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO Agreement).
In addition, consideration of key multilateral environmental agreements implicated in tire waste and trade in retreaded tires is relevant, both to ascertaining the proper public health dimensions of the case, as well as to building mutually supportive regimes between trade and the environment. Likewise, human rights law is also relevant to the scrutiny of measures adopted by Brazil to prevent the spread of diseases in its territory such as dengue, malaria, and yellow fever, which are caused by tire disposal and aggravated by trade in retreaded tires.