@article{2018:jung:trade_wars,
title = {Trade Wars are Easy to Win?},
year = {2018},
note = {In this paper, the authors comprehensively analyse the legal
implications of the much-dreaded 2018 US steel and aluminium tariffs
by President Trump, which finally entered into force against the
European Union on June 1, 2018. Ever since the tariffs were put into
practice against many other WTO-members on March 23, 2018, the
legality of the tariffs under WTO-law has been disputed especially by
the European Commission. On the one hand, the US argued that its
tariffs would be covered by the national security exception of the
GATT, which would grant unfettered discretion to the US and could, in
consequence, not be challenged by any contracting party before the
dispute settlement body. The European Union, which for a long time
supported this legal view in previous cases, recently has been
interpreting the national security clause differently, now finds it to
be reviewable in parts. At least a manifest abuse of the exception, as
in the current case, could be assessed by the WTO dispute settlement
body. Furthermore, the EU together with other WTO members has
interpreted the 2018 US steel and aluminium tariffs as safeguard
measures ‘in disguise’ and has announced to levy ‘compensatory
measures’ against them. The paper outlines the relevant
state-practice under GATT ’47 and the WTO Agreement in order to
discuss the legal issues arising. The paper lays a focus on the legal
assessment of the member states’ competence to interpret the invoked
national security measures as safeguard measures ‘in disguise’ in
general and in the current case and sheds light on its legal
conformity under WTO law as well as on remaining legal uncertainties.},
journal = {ZEuS Zeitschrift für Europarechtliche Studien},
pages = {3--24},
author = {Jung, Nicolas and Hazarika, Angshuman},
volume = {21},
number = {1}
}