Export Regulations and
Controls Publication at WTO
A
new publication launched at the Public Forum on 15 September provides insights into
how WTO members have used different international agreements and conventions beyond
the WTO as the basis for imposing export regulations aimed at ensuring objectives
such as environmental protection, hazardous waste management, weapons control and
combatting illegal drugs trade.
Ensuring
that international trade in sensitive or dangerous products takes place safely requires
that WTO members work together in enforcing different types of controls, some of
which have to be enforced by the exporting members. Some of these export regulations and controls
have been developed over many years of international cooperation and are embodied
in a large number of international agreements and conventions, and many WTO member
are party to them.
As
a result, WTO members utilize a wide range of measures, such as prohibitions, export
licences, regulations and other controls, to assist in risk management and regulating
trade in controlled and sensitive goods for fulfilling specific environmental objectives,
managing hazardous wastes and chemicals, combating illicit drugs and harmful substances,
promoting international peace and weapons controls.
The
new WTO publication explores for the first time how these export-related frameworks
developed beyond the WTO operate in practice and how they are linked to the multilateral
trading system.
“The
book is intended to serve as a guide for policymakers, government officials, academia
and members of the public with an interest in the areas covered,” said Suja Rishikesh Mavroidis Director
of the WTO's Market Access Division, in a foreword to the publication. “By fostering
a better understanding of the existing international agreements regulating exports
and how they link to the multilateral trading system, the WTO can help to strengthen
global cooperation, promote transparency and perhaps even inspire future agreements
seeking to strike a balance between advancing international trade and protecting the global
community against potential risks”, she said.
To
ensure transparency regarding these measures, WTO members are required to notify
every two years all quantitative restrictions (QRs) in force. For example, several
WTO members have notified measures such as prohibitions, restrictions or licences
for trade in nuclear materials, narcotic drugs and weapons, and several measures
to protect the environment. Members also have the possibility to indicate whether
these prohibitions or restrictions stem from international obligations undertaken
outside the WTO framework. In practice, several members have notified measures introduced
pursuant to these agreements.
The
top non-WTO agreements or conventions cited as grounds for export restrictions in
notified QRs are the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), with 44 notifications; the Montreal Protocol on Substances
that Deplete the Ozone Layer (32 notifications); the Rotterdam Convention on the
Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides
in International Trade (23 notifications); and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent
Organic Pollutants as well as the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (18 notifications each).
In
terms of the products affected by export-related measures, the publication notes
that chemical products are the most frequently affected, followed by optical and
measuring instruments, and different types of machinery and pharmaceuticals. The “General Exceptions” provision under Article
XX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was the most frequently cited WTO
basis for the export-related QRs — 73 per cent of the total — with paragraph (b)
of Article XX regarding measures “necessary to protect human, animal or plant life
or health” cited in 38 per cent of the export measures.
The
publication notes that since 2020 there has been an improvement in the quality of
the information provided, with more members indicating the effective duration of
certain measures as well as how certain restrictions are administered, or providing
weblinks to the national legal basis.