Recently
World Trade Organization (WTO) panels declared the illegitimacy of the tariff increases
imposed in 2018 by the US government, based on national security grounds, on imports
of steel and aluminium products. This paper addresses some of the key legal
issues raised in the four controversial panel decisions, leaving some final
reflections on the future of multilateral trade system. Given the unsettled
nature of the terrain, we firstly focus on the WTO rules that are relevant to
the tariffs imposed by Trump in 2018, before dwelling on the complainants’ arguments and panels’ findings.
Two indications or conclusion can be drawn from the paper. First, the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Article XXI doesn’t constitute a self-judging or non-justiciable provision,
differently from what argued by the US Government. Second, the controversial
reports will not resolve the ongoing conflict initiated by US against the WTO.
In fact Biden, far from distancing himself from Trump’s measures, openly condemned the panel’s decisions through an official statement widely disseminated
by the media. The practical significance of the recent condemnation of the US
tariffs is even less evident when considering the persistent issue of the
appointment of members to the WTO Appellate Body. If multilateralism continues
to falter, the US may no longer be the only country winking at bilateralism, as
evidenced by the recent rules adopted by the EU.