Israel: A comparative study of two models

Introduction: This chapter describes and analyses the various venues that exist at present, and that have existed in the past in Israel for the judicial review of trade remedy determinations. In doing so, it presents two different models of judicial review that have been attempted in Israel and evaluates their respective advantages and disadvantages based on the experience that has been accumulated. It will also discuss other important aspects of judicial review at the national level in connection with the Israeli experience. It shows that the standards of review employed by the various review bodies are a crucial factor in determining the effectiveness of the review. In view of this conclusion, it is surprising that the WTO agreements in the field of trade remedies have failed to address this issue and have left it for the member states to determine the standard of review to be employed by their domestic judicial review tribunals. Given the advantages of such review at the national level over international review by WTO dispute settlement panels, we will also argue in favour of extension of the former to provisional measures and to safeguard measures. Israel’s trade remedies legislation and practice: The law that currently regulates trade remedies in Israel, the Trade Levies and Protective Measures Law, 1991 (hereinafter the Law), was adopted in its original version in 1991. It may perhaps be seen as paradoxical, but its adoption was part of a general move aimed at the liberalization of Israel’s foreign trade policy. This move was partly unilateral and partly the result of international obligations that Israel had assumed, mainly in bilateral free trade agreements. Such agreements had been signed with the European Community in 1975 and with the United States in 1985, and the full tariff elimination under both agreements was to come into effect at the beginning of the 1990s. Along with this elimination of most trade barriers against European and US products, Israel had also embarked on a unilateral reduction of trade barriers vis-à-vis “third countries”, that is, countries with which no free trade agreements had been signed.