Flexibilities, Rules and Trade Remedies in the GATT/WTO System

Trade remedies have served the GATT/WTO system well in that they have provided the mechanisms for Member governments to manage protectionist pressures so that new import restrictions have minimally compromised the momentum of liberalization that negotiations have established. They are however an embarrassment to both legal and economic theory in that in practice they do not limit protection to sensible social or economic circumstances, nor even establish clearly when and when not a Member may apply a restriction. What follows from this conclusion are not suggestions for policy reform, but suggestions for analytical reform, particularly more attention to national institutions for managing trade remedies. The discipline in the system is less a matter of how the WTO regulates, more a matter of how the WTO has helped to shape the evolution of the domestic institutions that regulate