Climate Change and Unresolved Issues in WTO Law

Abstract

Measures aimed at addressing climate change raise legal issues regarding the relationship between WTO Law and international environmental law and the relationship between various WTO Agreements. This paper first examines emerging climate change policies that are likely to raise issues in WTO law. The remainder of the paper analyzes several unresolved issues in WTO law that may affect the WTO-consistency of measures that are likely to be taken to address climate change. How should the WTO deal with environmental subsidies under the GATT, the SCM Agreement and the Agreement on Agriculture? Can the general exceptions in GATT Article XX be applied to other agreements in Annex 1A? Are processing and production methods are relevant to determining the issue of 'like products' in GATT Articles I and III, the SCM Agreement and the Antidumping Agreement and the TBT Agreement? What is the scope of paragraphs b and g in GATT Article XX and the relationship between these two paragraphs? What is the relationship between GATT Article XX and multilateral environmental agreements in the context of climate change? How should Article 2 of the TBT Agreement be interpreted and applied in the context of climate change? The paper explores these issues.

Keywords: WTO, climate change, environmental subsidies, like products, Article XX, TBT Agreement

JEL Classification: K32, K33