Sustainable development in global trade (WTO) law

The course aims at providing students with the legal tools and the proper legal method to deal with sustainable development in global trade law. The course focuses on the analysis of the World Trade Organization (WTO) legal framework and the Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), and their relationship with the rules and principles on sustainable development. To this aim, it provides a general overview of the legal discipline of international trade, with a main focus on the international trade of goods. Specific attention is devoted to the analysis of the interaction between the WTO/RTAs rules and non-trade concerns, such as the protection of human rights and the environment, food security, the fight to COVID-19, climate change and fishing.

Detailed programme:

Part I:
· Sustainable development as an objective of the WTO /RTAs
· the WTO: origins, structure, legal texts
· The GATT (General Agreement on General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade): rules and principles
. The general exceptions: the protection of the environment, human rights and national security
· the SPS Agreement (Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures)
· the TBT Agreement (Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade)
· The treatment of developing countries.
. the US/China trade war and the crisis of the WTO

Part II:
· RTAs, rules and relationship with WTO law
. the RTAs' rules and chapters on sustainable development

PART III: trade and non-trade concerns- selected issues:
. trade and COVID-19
. trade of sustainable fish products
. trade and climate change