National NPA measures will often be justified as pursuing important public policies. Therefore, the legal status of NPA measures under WTO law is an important part of the broader ‘trade and …’ or ‘linkage’ debate, which discusses the general interface of trade and non-economic public policies. Many suggestions de lege ferenda have been made from the perspective of a certain policy, such as environmental or social and human rights policies, and some of these are highly relevant to the legal status of NPAs in general. Therefore, this chapter reviews and comments on existing suggestions and their usefulness for a new general perspective on NPAs.

Review

The proposals presented below concern diverse issues such as institutional, procedural and substantive matters and questions of competence. Most scholars favour mixed approaches which relate to changes in several categories. This chapter summarizes these approaches into three categories. The first category, denial of WTO competence, comprises views that completely deny linkage or the desirability of developing such linkage. It is important to note, however, that the motivation for the denial differs considerably. The two remaining categories describe various suggestions made by the ‘supporters’ of linkage. Most proposals suggest more complex changes in substance and procedure. Section 7.1.3, on institutional change and governance, presents some more general approaches to reform international economic law, often aimed at better embedding international economic law into the broader field of public international law.