Part III World Trade Law and Regional Trade Agreements, XXI WTO Law in Broader Perspective: The Interplay with Other Regimes of International Law

Subject(s):

Corporations — Competition — International investment law — International monetary law — Goods

This chapter describes the linkages between World Trade Organization (WTO) law and other rules and principles of public international law, especially the relations between the WTO dispute settlement regime and specific mechanisms of dispute resolution under free trade agreements. Sometimes WTO agreements explicitly refer to obligations or standards established in context with other regimes. Problems arise, however, when treaties lay down objectives which collide with free trade. Sometimes these conflicts can be easily reconciled by exceptions in the multilateral WTO agreements. However, a particularly large potential for conflict might flow from multilateral treaties which explicitly allow restrictive measures at least prima facie banned under WTO law.