The Latest United States Sanctions Against Iran: What Role to the WTO Security Exceptions?

Abstract

The US initiated the sanctions campaign against Iran at the end of the 1970s for national security reasons. The most significant step was arguably taken years later by the Clinton administration, by enacting the famous Iran and Libya Sanctions Act in 1996. Because of the extraterritorial effects of these sanctions, the European Commission reacted promptly, putting the matter on the table at the same time with the Helms-Burton claims, the latter becoming the first formal WTO request for the establishment of a panel related to security exceptions. Since 2006 the landscape has been changing and the UN Security Council passed a series of resolutions culminating with Resolution 1929 of June 2010. The United States’ implementing measures go beyond the Security Council’s mandate and some of them can be characterized as secondary sanctions. After a short overview of the possible violations of WTO law there follows a thorough analysis of the potentially available justifications. One of the key questions is whether a WTO Member can justify economic sanctions in excess of the UN mandate by using a unilateral defense in addition to the obvious multilateral justification.