Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface and acknowledgments
- Table of cases
- Table of agreements and decisions
- 1 ECONOMIC GLOBALISATION AND THE LAW OF THE WTO
- 2 THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
- 3 WTO DISPUTE SETTLEMENT
- 4 PRINCIPLES OF NON-DISCRIMINATION
- 5 RULES ON MARKET ACCESS
- 6 RULES ON UNFAIR TRADE
- 7 TRADE LIBERALISATION VERSUS OTHER SOCIETAL VALUES AND INTERESTS
- 8 CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE
- Index
7 - TRADE LIBERALISATION VERSUS OTHER SOCIETAL VALUES AND INTERESTS
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface and acknowledgments
- Table of cases
- Table of agreements and decisions
- 1 ECONOMIC GLOBALISATION AND THE LAW OF THE WTO
- 2 THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
- 3 WTO DISPUTE SETTLEMENT
- 4 PRINCIPLES OF NON-DISCRIMINATION
- 5 RULES ON MARKET ACCESS
- 6 RULES ON UNFAIR TRADE
- 7 TRADE LIBERALISATION VERSUS OTHER SOCIETAL VALUES AND INTERESTS
- 8 CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
The promotion and protection of public health, consumer safety, the environment, employment, economic development and national security are core tasks of governments. Often, trade liberalisation and the resulting availability of better and cheaper products and services facilitate the promotion and protection of these and other economic and non-economic societal values and interests. Through trade, environmentally friendly products or life-saving medicines, that would not be available otherwise, become available to consumers and patients respectively. At a more general level, trade generates the degree of economic activity and economic welfare indispensable for the effective promotion and protection of the societal values and interests referred to above.
In order to protect and promote these societal values and interests, however, governments also frequently adopt legislation or take measures that inadvertently or deliberately constitute barriers to trade. Members are often politically and/or economically ‘compelled’ to adopt legislation or measures which are inconsistent with the rules of WTO law and, in particular, with the principles of non-discrimination and the rules on market access as discussed in Chapters 4 and 5. Trade liberalisation, and its principles of non-discrimination and rules on market access, often conflict with other important societal values and interests.
This chapter will discuss the rules provided for in WTO law to reconcile trade liberalisation with other societal values and interests. This chapter will address the wide-ranging exceptions to the basic WTO rules, allowing Members to adopt trade-restrictive legislation and measures that pursue these other societal values and interests.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Law and Policy of the World Trade OrganizationText, Cases and Materials, pp. 596 - 691Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005