ورود به WTO و فرار از تعرفه

WTO accession and tariff evasion

مبتدی (مناسب برای درک مفهوم کلی مطلب)

F1958

نقش علم در قانون تجارت بین المللی

The role of science in international trade law

Abstract

While the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade addressed overt barriers to international trade, the current focus of international trade rules has shifted to less obvious, but in many cases no less restrictive, barriers to trade, such as protectionist measures adopted under the guise of health and safety standards. The new agreements established under the World Trade Organization (“WTO”), including the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (“SPS Agreement”), the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (“TBT Agreement”), provide important tools that can be invoked by governments and used by stakeholders to address regulatory barriers that were once thought outside the purview of international trade rules. Non-science based regulations can be and have been successfully challenged under the SPS and TBT Agreements, which prohibit WTO Members from maintaining laws or regulations that adversely affect trade unless such measures are scientifically justified. Stakeholders should use to the fullest extent possible international trade rules to eliminate non-science based regulations that adversely affect trade in the goods that they produce.

1. International trade agreements: how they work and what they cover

International trade rules today aVect every aspect of the global economy, from capital movements, to trade in goods and services, to intellectual property, to product and food safety standards. These rules complement national legislation, help shape the regulatory environment in countries throughout the world, and oVer a neutral, international means by which trade concerns can be raised and disputes can be settled. Of particular interest to professionals in the Weld of toxicology and applied pharmacology, international trade rules require that particular types of national laws aVecting trade be based on sound science and not be more trade-restrictive than necessary to meet a legitimate regulatory interest.

1-1 From GATT to WTO: the expanding reach of international trade rules

Almost 60 years ago, a post-war world undertook its Wrst round of multilateral trade talks, which resulted in the General Agreement on TariVs and Trade (“GATT”). The major trade barriers being addressed then were principally tariVs, import quotas, and state monopolies. By the time the last GATT round of trade negotiations began in 1986, the focus had shifted to regulatory barriers relating to intellectual property, health, and safety, and the provision of services. This round of negotiations, which concluded in 1994, produced the WTO and its associated agreements, which provide an important avenue to address regulatory barriers that were once thought outside the purview of trade negotiations. In these Agreements, WTO Members committed themselves to a much-expanded regime of rules and obligations that protects access to global markets on procompetitive terms. While the traditional GATT disciplines prohibiting discrimination between imports and domestic goods could be leveraged to remove many obstacles to market access, new WTO rules can now be brought to bear even more eVectively on domestic laws and regulations impeding trade.