Economic sanctions and WTO law

Abstract

The subject. Restrictive measures have become one of the prevailing methods of foreign policy of particular states. Their main objectives are to change the political course of target states, to exert economic pressure on specific governments, companies or individuals. Traditionally, the majority of such measures are referred to the concept of “economic sanctions”. Despite the widespread use of the term, the international practice of challenging economic sanctions is not characterized by uniformity of approaches. The subject of this study is to analyze the existing WTO practice on disputes arising from the imposition of economic sanctions. Particular attention is paid to disputes where national security exceptions have been used as a defense argument. The hypothesis of the possibility of challenging economic sanctions through WTO mechanisms is investigated.

Purpose of the study. The article represents an attempt to verify possible options for challenging economic sanctions in the WTO framework. The objective of this study is to analyze the existing practice of consideration of disputes arising from the imposition of economic sanctions at the WTO level in order to identify prospects for their resolution.

Methodology. The research was conducted using general scientific methods – systematicity and logical analysis, which allowed to identify the main regularities of the studied object. Also, in this work were used special scientific methods of cognition, such as formal-dogmatic, historical, generalization method and method of hermeneutics.

The main results. The practice of dispute settlement on the legality of economic sanctions is not fully developed. In the past, economic sanctions have only exceptionally been the subject of WTO proceedings. There have been cases in WTO practice where attempts by states to challenge unilateral restrictive measures have failed not as a result of dispute settlement, but because the parties were able to reach an agreement. Until 2019, Panels practically did not use Article XXI (b) (iii) of the GATT as an argument to justify economic sanctions for fear that it might cause an abuse of right. Recently, the invocation of this Article has become more common.

Conclusions. Article XXI (b) (iii) of the GATT can be used as a basis for challenging economic sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation by certain states that are not in a state of armed conflict with it.