Relationship of GATT Article XX Exceptions to Other WTO Agreements

Abstract

AbstractThe 'Single Undertaking' concept was incorporated into the Uruguay Round Trade Talks at the last stage of the negotiations to among other things remedy the problems attributed to General Agreement on Tariff s and Trade (GATT) 1947 a la carte practice. Yet, no extensive discussion on coordination and hierarchy of World Trade Organization (WTO) norms seemed to have taken place. Even if the WTO members had hoped that the inherent flexibility in the GATT/WTO treaty system would be enough to resolve some unforeseen tensions arising from the treaty, the language of some of the WTO treaty provisions does not always point to this direction. As a consequence, it becomes very daunting to demarcate with certainty how some of the legal instruments forming the WTO are to interact with each other. In view of the Appellate Body (AB) report on China - Publications and Audiovisual Products, this article examines the relationship between GATT Article XX exceptions and WTO covered agreements outside GATT 1994.