The Return of Voluntary Export Restraints? How WTO Law Regulates (And Doesn’t Regulate) Bilateral Trade-Restrictive Agreements

Abstract

In recent trade negotiations, WTO Members have consented to limit rather than promote trade between the parties, bringing back the spectre of ‘voluntary export restraints’, a widespread practice of the 1980s that was outlawed in the Uruguay Round Agreements. This article discusses the ways in which WTO law regulates, and does not regulate, agreements between WTO Members to limit parties’ rights under WTO law (‘WTOminus’). While WTO-minus provisions in bilateral agreements are able to influence WTO law only under very specific circumstances, the design of WTO dispute settlement is such that measures based on WTO-minus arrangements may remain unopposed for long periods of time. If trade-restrictive measures are challenged, WTO-minus provisions are unlikely to serve as a defence before WTO adjudicators.