IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/wtowps/ersd201811.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Addressing tensions and avoiding disputes: Specific trade concerns in the TBT Committee

Author

Listed:
  • Holzer, Kateryna

Abstract

Most specific trade concerns (STCs), which are raised before the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Committee), disappear from the TBT Committee's meeting agendas without escalating into formal disputes. At the same time, a relatively small number of TBT-related disputes have been subject to the WTO dispute settlement procedures. By examining the practice of raising STCs and the relationship between STCs and disputes, the paper emphasises the role of STCs as a trade tension resolution mechanism. It argues that the STC mechanism is a viable alternative to the currently overburdened WTO dispute settlement system. The paper also suggests ways to strengthen the STC mechanism of the TBT Committee through dividing TBT Committee meetings into thematic sessions, adopting mediation procedures and reporting on STC resolutions. Further, it underscores the importance of increasing transparency and promoting good regulatory practice in avoiding disputes.

Suggested Citation

  • Holzer, Kateryna, 2018. "Addressing tensions and avoiding disputes: Specific trade concerns in the TBT Committee," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2018-11, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wtowps:ersd201811
    DOI: 10.30875/09839801-en
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/187445/1/1040972225.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.30875/09839801-en?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gründler, Klaus & Hillman, Arye L., 2021. "Ambiguous protection," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Robert Wolfe, 2020. "Reforming WTO Conflict Management. Why and How to Improve the Use of “Specific Trade Concerns”," RSCAS Working Papers 2020/53, European University Institute.
    3. Cassehgari Posada, Kian & Ganne, Emmanuelle & Piermartini, Roberta, 2020. "The role of WTO committees through the lens of specific trade concerns raised in the TBT committee," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2020-09, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    specific trade concerns; technical barriers to trade; TBT Agreement; TBT Committee; trade disputes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations
    • F55 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Institutional Arrangements
    • K33 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - International Law
    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:wtowps:ersd201811. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wtoerch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.