The First Twenty Cases Under GATT Article XX: Tuna or Shrimp Dear?

Moran, Niall

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-44645-5_1

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 2 publications

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“…However, several countries restricted exports of food products, including fish (Cambodia) and vegetables (Egypt). Such restrictions may not satisfy the “necessity” threshold and represent “arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination” (Amaral and Kramer, 2019; Bartels, 2015; Moran, 2016). If the measures are judged to be adopted “to protect essential security interests [in an] emergency of international relations”, they may nevertheless be justified under Article XXI(b)(iii).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The trade policy response to COVID-19 and its implications for international business

Curran

Eckhardt

Lee

2021

cpoib

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Purpose This paper aims to explore trade policy measures taken in response to COVID-19 and analyses in detail their extent and nature. It assesses their compatibility with World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements: specifically, whether they were necessary and justifiable efforts to protect the security and health of populations and asks how this widespread recourse to trade barriers may impact on international business? Design/methodology/approach This paper analyses an extensive database from the International Trade Centre of trade measures taken in response to COVID-19. It differentiates by type of country, nature and coverage of measures (imports or exports, type of product…). On the basis of existing jurisprudence, this paper analyses whether restrictive measures were likely to be judged legal under WTO rules. Findings This paper finds that, although the majority of trade measures are probably justifiable, there were nevertheless many measures whose coverage and/or nature was such that a justification under existing WTO exceptions is, at the very least, arguable. Such widespread and intense instigation of potentially WTO incompatible measures in such a short period of time undoubtedly undermines the global trade rules on which international business has relied for decades. Originality/value There is little existing analysis of the legality of measures taken under the security exceptions and no substantial analyses of the measures taken in response to COVID-19. Furthermore, little scholarly attention has been paid to the impacts on international business of the increasing use of WTO “exceptions” to justify trade measures to protect national industries and populations.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The trade policy response to COVID-19 and its implications for international business

Curran

Eckhardt

Lee

2021

cpoib

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Policy responses to COVID-19: lessons for the global trade and investment regime

Thrasher,

Kaplan,

Wirtz

et al. 2023

Global Health

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Background During the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has cost millions of lives around the globe, caused major morbidity and provoked widespread economic and social disruption. In response, governments have enacted policies to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic. This research focuses in on policies aimed at increasing access to essential health products and services by comparing them to the global rules governing trade, investment and intellectual property. We have assessed whether these rules have or could have constrained countries in responding to this and future crises. The study identifies the nature and scope of the trade-related health sector policies implemented by our sample group of countries, selected because of their systemic significance: the United States, Germany, France, China, South Africa and India. Each policy is placed into one of five broad categories covered by trade and investment rules so that we could assess their consistency with those rules. Results We found, among other things, that the types of trade-related health measures were quite diverse. The high-income countries in our study were the most active in the policy space and tended to rely on subsidies-based measures while the middle-income countries relied more heavily on export and import measures. Policies directly relevant to intellectual property protection were virtually non-existent. When evaluating the implemented policies against the global trade and investment rules, we found potential constraints under five different types of rules: those governing subsidies, import and export trade barriers, investment measures, government procurement and trade-related intellectual property. Conclusions Given the tension between the global rules and the practices of policymaking during the pandemic, we conclude that the tension must be resolved in favor of governments making policy rather than relying on existing exceptions or pushing national governments to comply more exactly with the rules. Although the pandemic itself does not respect national borders, governance still generally occurs at the national level because national governments are often the only entities with both the legal authority and the practical ability to respond.

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The First Twenty Cases Under GATT Article XX: Tuna or Shrimp Dear?

Cited by 2 publications

References 2 publications

The trade policy response to COVID-19 and its implications for international business

The trade policy response to COVID-19 and its implications for international business

Policy responses to COVID-19: lessons for the global trade and investment regime

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