WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

AND

THE REGULATION OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE

BY
OMER FAROOQ ALVI
A THESIS SUBMITTED
FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF LAWS
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
2004
ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I offer my thanks to Associate Professor Locknie Hsu for her continuous
guidance, suggestions and directions during the course of this writing. I would also
like to thank the Vice Dean Graduate Division Associate Professor Keang Sood Teo
for his constant encouragement during the whole course. All errors and omissions are
the writer s own.
iii

CONTENTS
Acknowledgement ii

Table of Contents iii

Summary v

Ch. 1 Introduction
- Regulating Global Trade
- This Work
1

Ch. 2 Trade Remedy Measures Available to WTO Member
States
- Anti-Dumping Measures
- Safeguard Measures
- Subsidies and Countervailing Measures
- A Quick Overview
7

Ch. 3 Application of WTO TRMs
- How Do TRMs Work?
- How Do TRMs Fit in the Scheme of Special and
Differential Treatment of WTO?
- How the Misuse of TRMs is Checked?
- A Comparative Study of the Different TRMs
Available under WTO
42

iv

Ch. 4 Trade Remedy Measures and the Developed Member
States
- TRMs with NAFTA
- TRMs with the European Union
- TRMs and the United States of America
- Some Common Reservations and Concerns of
Developed Member States towards WTO TRMs
58

Ch. 5 Trade Remedy Measures and the Developing Member
States
- TRMs in Domestic Laws of Pakistan
- Problems Commonly Faced by Developing
Member States towards the Application of
Different TRMs
- TRMs and Some Changing Attitudes among the
Developing Member States
- Overview of the Developing Member States
Position on TRMs
112

Ch. 6 Conclusion

143

Bibliography 147

v
SUMMARY
This part seeks to be an introductory text and will present an overview of how
the World Trade Organization (WTO), through a set of trade remedy measures
(TRMs) attempts to regulate global trade in the contemporary era.
In Chapter 1 of this work we will start with an introduction into a brief history
of how countries were led to introduce a global machinery to regulate cross-border
trade and commercial affairs under the WTO. It will then discuss the nature and role
of different WTO agreements towards the regulation of global trade. Towards the end
of this chapter, it will also highlight the research methodology employed in this work
and its possible utility.
Chapter 2 of this work contains a detailed study of the various TRMs provided
under the WTO system. It contains detailed features, prerequisites for application and
modes of application of the three TRMs i.e. anti-dumping, safeguard and the subsidy
countervailing measures.
Further details about the mentioned TRMs, specifically details with regard to
their application, are contained in Chapter 3 of this work. Such details include how a
special and differential treatment (S&D) for developing and least developed member
states is provided in the application of those TRMs; how member states can check any
misuse of those TRMs; and how member states may avoid any confusion regarding
the choice of the rightly applicable TRM to a particular situation.
Moving to a discussion on the different ways that WTO TRMs are perceived
by its member states with different economic conditions, we will find Chapter 4
starting this discussion about how developed member states do so? Here we will
discuss how some regional setups like NAFTA and the European Union, which
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combine the largest number of developed member states in a regional economic setup,
recognize those TRMs and the way they differ from what is actually provided by
WTO in this regard. Besides those regional setups, this chapter shall also contain a
study into TRMs as contained in the US trade laws, their historic reference and their
comparative study vis--vis the WTO agreements on the subject. Towards the end,
this chapter shall also contain a discussion about some common reservations and
concerns which the developed member states tend to have while applying or molding
their TRMs more closely to what they are required to do under the WTO system.
Chapter 5 continues with the same discussion as in the previous chapter, but
focuses on the developing member states. It takes a sample case of Pakistan s
domestic laws containing those TRMs and provides a detailed analytical and
comparative study vis--vis the global regimes on this subject. It then moves onto
discussing the more commonly faced problems usually faced by the developing
member states while applying those TRMs. A large part of the information contained
in this chapter is a collection of empirical knowledge which was collected through a
research tour of Pakistan in order to include some on-ground realities prevailing in
developing member states while resorting to any of those TRMs.
The whole discussion is then summed up in Chapter 6 of this work.
It is hoped that this work will contribute to the work already done on WTO
and specifically on the various TRMs available thereunder, as the most vital global
trade regulating tools in the present age. Through a comparative study of the
multilateral agreements and the domestic and regional regimes on the subject, it will
help the reader to understand the actual working of those TRMs, the different
approaches towards their interpretations, incorporations and applications, and some of
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the more common reasons behind such differences. But, this is only a brief
description and more details are to follow in the coming parts of this work.