The WTO Agreement on Safeguards: A Commentary

by Alan O. Sykes

Overview

The protection of troubled industries against import surges, called safeguard measures under WTO law, are controversially justified on the basis of economic concerns. This book reviews the economic literature bearing on the soundness of safeguard policies. It also addresses the complex legal issues relating to the constraints on safeguard measures under WTO law, and affords a thorough discussion and critical analysis of the WTO disputes in the area, including the most recent case involving measures protecting the U.S. steel industry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199277407
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/23/2006
Series:	Oxford Commentaries on GATT/WTO Agreements
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	10.16(w) x 6.54(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

Alan Sykes received his law degree from Yale University in 1982, and his Ph.D. in economics from Yale in 1987. He was in private practice in Washington, D.C. at the law firm of Arnold in Porter from 1982-86, specializing in international trade matters, including escape clause cases under U.S. law. He joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1986, and became the Frank and Bernice Greenberg Professor in 1996. His principal research interest is international trade, on which he has published numerous books and articles. His books include Product Standards for internationally Integrated Goods Markets (Brookings 1995), and Legal Problems of International Economic Relations (West 2002), co-authored with John H. Jackson and William J. Davey.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction2. The Evolution of Safeguard Measures in the WTO/GATT System: An Overview3. Economic Policy Considerations4. Preliminary Issues in WTO Safeguards Disputes: Burden of Proof, Standard of Review, and the "Record" on Appeal5. Procedural Obligations in the Agreement on Safeguards6. "Unforeseen Developments" and "The Effect of the Obligations Incurred"7. The Requirement of Increased Imports8. Serious Injury, Threat and Industry Definition9. The Causation and "Non-Attribution" Requirements10. Permissible Measures and Their Duration11. Compensation, Retaliation and the Prohibition of Grey-Area Measures12. Conclusion: The Central Issues Ahead

Editorial Reviews

"Sykes presents readers with a book that masterfully combines accessible language with depth of analysis and cogent argumentation with respect to a crucial topic of international trade law. The multi-disciplinary approach is key in creating the added value. The close connections with antidumping and subsidy/countervailing duty law further make Sykes' commentary a necessary reading for anybody interested in the law, economics and politics of trade remedies and subsidy control."
—Luca Rubini, KLQ, Volume 60, April 2011

From the Publisher