Trade Policy Roundtable

Time for Coherence Among the WTO�s Escape Clauses (April 14, 2003)

Seminar at 11.00 a.m. on Monday, April 14, 2003, at Steptoe & Johnson, 1330 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

ROGRESS in the Doha Round negotiations is being held up by dialogues of the deaf, most of all over agriculture, but also over the so-called Singapore issues, the dispute-settlement process and anti-dumping reform.  Anti-dumping laws and practices have been increasingly criticized over the last three decades.  Today they are perceived to be abused and misused as the protectionist instrument of choice, often invoked where emergency protection, the �safeguard clause� (under GATT Article XIX), would be more to the point.  Since the Uruguay Round agreements, more and more countries have introduced anti-dumping laws, usually copying Brussels and Washington practices, and the trend is expected to continue.  Japan, China and Korea, plus many developing countries, are pressing for reform.  Gary Horlick argues that it is time to review the WTO�s escape clauses, especially the provisions for safeguard actions, subsidy-countervailing measures and anti-dumping duties, in order to achieve coherence and consistency among them.

After Mr Horlick has presented his paper, the discussion will be initiated by WILLIAM REINSCH (National Foreign Trade Council) and RICHARD  CUNNINGHAM (Steptoe & Johnson).   See over the page for bio-notes.

GARY HORLICK, a Partner at Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, attorneys-at-law, is a visiting lecturer in law at Yale, Georgetown and Berne universities.  His volume of essays, WTO & NAFTA Rules and Dispute Settlement, is about to be published.

The Cordell Hull Institute�s Trade Policy Roundtable is sponsored by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Arnold & Porter, Hogan & Hartson, O�Melveny & Myers, Steptoe & Johnson and Wilmer Cutler & Pickering