Situations in which its members have imposed export regulations aimed at ensuring objectives such as environmental protection, hazardous waste management, weapons control and combatting illegal drugs trade are highlighted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in a new report.
Ensuring that international trade in sensitive or dangerous products takes place safely requires that WTO members work together in enforcing different types of controls, some of which have to be enforced by the exporting members, it explains.
Some of these export regulations and controls have been developed over many years of international co-operation and are embodied in a large number of international agreements and conventions, and many WTO members are party to them.
As a result, WTO members utilise a wide range of measures, such as prohibitions, export licences, regulations and other controls, to assist in risk management and regulating trade in controlled and sensitive goods. Examples include measures for fulfilling specific environmental objectives, managing hazardous wastes and chemicals, combatting illicit drugs and harmful substances and promoting international peace and weapons controls.
The new publication, International Export Regulations and Controls: Navigating the Global Framework Beyond WTO Rules, explores for the first time how these export-related frameworks developed beyond the WTO operate in practice and how they are linked to the multilateral trading system.
Available HERE, the 145-page report notes that chemical products are the most frequently affected, followed by optical and measuring instruments, different types of machinery and pharmaceuticals.
The top non-WTO agreements or conventions cited as grounds for export restrictions are the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
