Source: https://www.scribd.com/doc/117820660/1855
Timestamp: 2016-07-23 10:33:29
Document Index: 520585466

Matched Legal Cases: ['Arts 2', 'Arts 3', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'Arts 3', 'Arts 3', 'Art.98', 'Art. 6']

UploadSign inJoinBooksAudiobooksComicsSheet MusicEditors' Picks BooksHand-picked favorites from our editorsEditors' Picks AudiobooksHand-picked favorites from our editorsEditors' Picks ComicsHand-picked favorites from our editorsEditors' Picks Sheet MusicHand-picked favorites from our editorsTop BooksWhat's trending, bestsellers, award-winners & moreTop AudiobooksWhat's trending, bestsellers, award-winners & moreTop ComicsWhat's trending, bestsellers, award-winners & moreTop Sheet MusicWhat's trending, bestsellers, award-winners & moreCategoriesArts & IdeasBiography & MemoirBusiness & LeadershipChildren'sComputers & TechnologyCooking & FoodCrafts & HobbiesFantasyFiction & LiteratureHappiness & Self-HelpHealth & WellnessHistoryHome & GardenHumorLGBTMystery, Thriller & CrimePolitics & EconomyReferenceReligionRomanceScience & NatureScience FictionSociety & CultureSports & AdventureTravelYoung AdultCategoriesArts & IdeasBiography & MemoirBusiness & LeadershipChildren'sComputers & TechnologyCooking & FoodFantasyFiction & LiteratureHappiness & Self-HelpHealth & WellnessHistoryHome & GardenHumorLGBTMystery, Thriller & CrimePolitics & EconomyReferenceReligionRomanceScience & NatureScience FictionSociety & CultureSports & AdventureTravelYoung AdultCategoriesAdaptationsChildren’sCrime & MysteryFictionHumorMangaNonfictionRomanceSciFi, Fantasy & HorrorSuperheroesYoung AdultPublishersArcanaArchie ComicsBOOM! StudiosDynamiteIDW PublishingKingstone ComicsMarvel ComicsSpace Goat ProductionsTop Cow ComicsValiant ComicsZenescopeDifficultyBeginnerIntermediateAdvancedMixedInstrumentBrassDrums & PercussionGuitar, Bass, and FrettedPianoStringsVocalWoodwindsGenreClassicalCountryFolkJazz & BluesMovies & MusicalsPop & RockReligious & HolidayStandardsWelcome to Scribd! Start your free trial and access books, documents and more.Find out moreThe European Journal of International Law Vol. 20 no.3 © EJIL 2009; all rights reserved
Andrew Lang and Joanne Scott*
In academic literature the WTO is largely viewed as synonymous with its novel system for the settlement of disputes. We seek to demonstrate in this article that there is more to the WTO than this, and to exemplify this claim by reference to two speciﬁc sites of non-judicial governance in the WTO. We suggest that these two WTO committees perform important functions which are largely hidden from view. In particular, we point to the role that they play in generating and disseminating information, and as facilitators of technical assistance and regulatory learning. We also suggest that these committees contribute to the emergence of interpretive communities which serve to elaborate upon the open-ended norms laid down in the relevant agreements. Having surveyed the activities of these two sites of non-judicial governance in the WTO, we then situate them in the context of three contemporary narratives of global governance (transgovernmental networks, global administrative law, and managerialism), and use these as a way of critically evaluating the developments we describe. It is our view that the material that we have uncovered in relation to these two examples is sufﬁciently rich to justify further research in this domain.
This article seeks to draw attention to a number of ‘hidden’ sites of governance within the World Trade Organization, the signiﬁcance of which we feel has so far been underexplored. The vast bulk of present research into the operation of the WTO focuses either on the dynamics of high-level international trade negotiations or on the functioning of the WTO’s legalized dispute settlement system. But operating in parallel with both negotiation and dispute settlement – and relatively neglected in the academic literature – is a large infrastructure of over 35 committees, working parties, and review
* Andrew Lang is Lecturer in Law at the London School of Economics and Joanne Scott is Professor of European Law at University College London. The authors would like to thank Jeffrey Dunoff, Laurence Helfer, and Joel Trachtman for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. Emails: a.lang@lse. ac.uk; joanne.scott@ucl.ac.uk
EJIL (2009), Vol. 20 No. 3, 575–614
doi: 10.1093/ejil/chp041
EJIL 20 (2009), 575–614
bodies. Our continuing exploration of these bodies, of which this article represents the ﬁrst fruits, began with the intuition that these committees perform functions vital to the ongoing operation of the WTO, and that a greater awareness of their functions may helpfully challenge and enrich dominant perceptions of the roles that the WTO does (and doesn’t) play in the governance of the international economy. These governance spaces, it seemed to us as we began, apparently operate on the basis of premises which are quite different from those which characterize formal dispute settlement. Indeed, they seemed to reveal a picture of the WTO which is at least potentially more dynamic, more cooperative, more reﬂexive, and more regulatory re-enforcing than is nearly always thought to be the case, based exclusively upon an examination of the dynamics of multilateral trade negotiations and dispute settlement. Changing our focus to the administrative hinterland of the WTO may be particularly timely, given the difﬁculties which have beset the Doha Round. If these difﬁculties presage – or perhaps accelerate – a broader shift in the role of the WTO, from a forum for the creation and enforcement of binding legal commitments to an institution for the supervision, monitoring, and management of (certain aspects of) the international trading system, then it is a relatively urgent task to build better maps and create thicker descriptions of what is going on within the administrative infrastructure of the WTO. The work of these committees, it should be acknowledged, is mundane: it is primarily concerned with the administration of trade agreements, deliberately eschews matters of high politics, is frequently technical, and is hardly noticed among most scholars of international organizations. But this is of course why we have chosen to study them – in our view, it is precisely on the basis of this ordinary world of apparently mundane activity, on the day-to-day interactions which together constitute the practice of governing, that we ought to build our understanding of what global governance is and ought to be. This article begins by outlining the operation of two parts of the WTO’s committee system, the ﬁrst being the Services Council and its subsidiary bodies, and the second the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Committee). Neither of these case studies is offered as a deﬁnitive or complete account of the operation of these bodies – rather, our aim is to highlight a number of intriguing processes taking place in them, which we believe are relevant to those interested in the evolution of structures of global economic governance generally. These case studies are deliberately descriptive, and as far as possible we try to let them simply speak for themselves, without trying to force them into a particular narrative or normative frame. Then, in the subsequent three sections, we set out a number of alternative contemporary narratives about the trajectories of global governance, and attempt to situate our case studies in relation to them: namely, the literature around the growth of transgovernmental regulatory networks, the growing body of work on global administrative law; and the critical scholarship concerning the emergence of a ‘managerialist’ ethos in international law. While no one of these contemporary literatures fully accounts for the practice of WTO administrative infrastructure, we nonetheless offer them as useful as frames of reference which can help orient the questions we ask about the operation of WTO committees, and inform our views as to both the promise they offer and the risks they create.
2 Administration of the General Agreement on Trade in Services
The new General Agreement on Trade in Services was concluded in 1994 as part of the ﬁnal package of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. These negotiations established for the ﬁrst time a multilateral legal framework governing the liberalization of international trade in services of all kinds, roughly analogous to the legal framework covering trade in goods found in the GATT. At the same time, they also established an administrative infrastructure associated with this legal framework, under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. The primary WTO administrative body in the area of services is the Council for Trade in Services, which is established by Article IV.5 of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. The legal framework governing the operation of this body is very open. The primary mandate of the Council is simply to ‘oversee the functioning of the General Agreement on Trade in Services’.1 It is empowered also to determine its own rules of procedure, and has done so.2 It has the authority to establish any subsidiary bodies that it sees ﬁt.3 It meets according to its own timetable, on average once every six weeks or so. There are at present four subsidiary bodies to the Services Council. At its ﬁrst meeting in 1995 the Council created a Committee on Trade in Financial Services, which was tasked essentially with the administration of all GATS-related matters as they pertained to the ﬁnancial services sector.4 The following year, the Council then created the Committee on Speciﬁc Commitments. This obscurely-named committee oversees Members’ ‘speciﬁc commitments’ – that is, the liberalization commitments agreed to in negotiations and entered in their schedules – a task which includes holding discussions on how to ‘improv[e] their technical accuracy and coherence’, as well as monitoring the modiﬁcation of these commitments under GATS Article XXI.5 In addition to these two Committees, there are two Working Parties – the Working Party on GATS Rules, and the Working Party on Domestic Regulation – which are tasked with
Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Art. IV.5, available at: www.wto.org/ english/docs_e/legal_e/04-wto_e.htm. In addition, more speciﬁc functions of the Council are set out in the General Agreement on Trade in Services, e.g., receiving notiﬁcations of measures affecting trade in services (Art. III), of Economic Integration Agreements (Art. V), of Labour Market Integration Agreements (Art. Vbis), of recognition agreements (Art. VII), of BOP restrictions (Art. XII), of modiﬁcation of Schedules (Art. XXI), as well as developing disciplines on domestic regulation (Art. VI), taking measures as requested relating to monopolies and service suppliers (Art. VIII), conducting an assessment of trade in services (Art. XIX, drawing up procedures for the modiﬁcation of Schedules (Art. XXI), carrying out various tasks in relation to dispute settlement (Art. XXII), and making decisions on technical assistance (Art. XXV). WTO Doc. S/L/15. Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Art. IV.6. See Decision on Institutional Arrangements for the General Agreement on Trade in Services, available at: www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/44-dsvin_e.htm, and WTO Docs S/L/1 and S/C/M/1, at paras 6–7. Although there has been a proposal to create at least one other sectoral committee, this remains the only one so far. See WTO Docs S/L/16, S/CSC/M/1.
carrying out further negotiations on matters which remained unresolved at the end of the Uruguay Round, as required by Articles VI, X, XIII, and XV of the GATS. The rules of procedure of these bodies are only very thinly speciﬁed in their constituent documents, so that each is broadly empowered to determine its own rules of procedure as it sees ﬁt. Participation in the formal meetings in all of these bodies is open only to representatives of WTO Members, and participants tend to be drawn from career diplomats posted to missions in Geneva. However, Members have full discretion as to who they send to the committees to accompany their usual representatives, and each of the committees as a whole has considerable discretion to extend invitations to other organizations to participate in meetings as observers, to make presentations and answer questions, or in any other capacity. Thus, for example, the IMF, World Bank, UNCTAD, and UN have all been granted permanent observer status in the Services Council and its subsidiary bodies.6 The International Civil Aviation Organization, World Health Organization, International Telecommunications Union, World Tourism Organization, Universal Postal Union, and OECD have also been granted observer status on an ad hoc basis to particular meetings of the Council and its subsidiary bodies.7 In addition, many more organizations have been involved in informal seminars and other meetings which occur around the formal committee meetings. Although these administrative bodies carry out a wide range of activities, much of their work can appear mundane. Committees receive notiﬁcations of new regulatory measures submitted by Members, compile databases of these measures, monitor the ratiﬁcation of legal texts, conduct technical veriﬁcation of documents, endlessly discuss how to carry out their own business, and request and discuss background documents from the Secretariat in preparation for all of these activities. Moreover, the minutes of these bodies paint (at least at ﬁrst glance) a frankly uninspiring and relatively bland picture of long and inconclusive discussions, and few concrete decisions, with little by way of immediate consequences. Nevertheless, it is one of our starting premises that it is in the day-to-day interactions between delegates, in such apparently insigniﬁcant and highly technical discussions, that our understanding of transnational governance structures must begin. In what follows, then, we focus in on two hardly noticed elements in the work programme of these administrative bodies – the ﬁrst relating to processes of ‘information exchange’, and the second relating to their ‘norm elaboration’ function.
A Information Exchange
The Services Council and its subsidiary Committees can act as venues for the exchange of information among WTO members, as well as between these Members and ofﬁcials from other international organizations. We use the term ‘information exchange’ broadly, to cover not just the provision and transmission of knowledge, but also the associated processes of discussion, contestation, elaboration, and justiﬁcation that
WTO Docs S/C/M/1, at para. 4 (on an ad hoc basis), and S/C/M/17 (making that decision permanent). See WTO Docs S/C/M/42, S/C/6. For a list of pending requests for observer status see WTO Doc. S/C/ W/19, including Rev. 1-6.
13 In addition. often accompanied by a written submission from the Member’s representative. S/FIN/W/26. there have been a number of presentations – particularly from those developing countries suffering from ﬁnancial crises of some sort – which provide a counterpoint to the more benign
WTO Docs S/FIN/M/38. WTO Doc. Those Members who make presentations do so on a voluntary basis. under an agenda item entitled ‘Recent Developments in Financial Services Trade’.10 Canada informed the Committee when it restructured its regulatory framework in 2000. WTO Docs S/FIN/M/40. and the tools it has used to deal with such challenges. S/FIN/W/25. WTO Doc.9 Other presentations have focussed less on speciﬁc regulatory issues. a representative from Hong Kong’s regulatory authority for the ﬁnancial services sector attended the Committee meeting to give a presentation on the challenges that ‘e-banking’ posed for ﬁnancial services regulators and recent initiatives that Hong Kong had established to address them. While at present they present a mixed picture in terms of their signiﬁcance and extent.11 a representative of the China Banking Regulatory Commission described the gradual transformation of the Chinese banking sector over the last 20 years. WTO Doc. and the discussion will sometimes continue for a number of future meetings afterward. but also drawing attention to the work of the Basel Committee on precisely this issue. and at times offer their own views on the appropriate lessons to be drawn from the experiences related. at para. The ﬁrst is conducted through the Committee on Trade in Financial Services. ask clarifying questions. we draw attention to them as indicating an important potential in the operation of the committee system. In late 2002. Written responses to the questions raised in the Committee will often be circulated in the weeks after a meeting. S/FIN/M/32. The ﬂoor will then be opened. will typically focus on the substance of recent legislative changes. and other delegates will comment on the presentation. setting out not only the Swiss regulatory framework covering e-ﬁnance issues. S/FIN/M/27.8 This was followed a short time later by a paper and presentation from the Swiss delegate.
. and more on recent changes to national regulatory frameworks: Japan introduced a paper in the Committee soon after it established its Financial Services Authority informing other countries of its basic structure and operation. This presentation. A good number of the different programmes of these bodies could fall within this description. WTO Docs S/FIN/M/27. and S/FIN/W/15.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
occur in and around such exchange. as well as the challenges and difﬁculties that the country has faced in the process of liberalization. 46. and there is usually only one presentation (sometimes two) at each meeting of the Committee. we will focus on just three. at para.12 and the US provided detailed information on the processes which led up to the passing of the ‘Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act’ in 1999. At almost every meeting of this Committee. S/FIN/M/50. A number of examples will help to give the ﬂavour of these presentations. 45. Members are encouraged to make presentations to the Committee on their recent experience with liberalization and ‘regulatory reform’ in the ﬁnancial services sector.
and where it has been carried out in accordance with the guidelines set by such bodies as the Bank for International Settlements or the Basle Committee. S/FIN/M/38. E. they will typically make sure to mention that this process has been carried out in consultation with international organizations such as the World Bank or IMF. WTO Doc. S/FIN/M/33. WTO Doc. 575–614
portraits of ﬁnancial sector liberalization which characterize many of these presentations. gave a detailed account of the Turkish government’s response to its ﬁnancial crises in 2000 and 2001.580
EJIL 20 (2009).. WTO Docs S/FIN/M/25.14 Argentina also presented a cautionary tale from its own experience. too. the Committee has organized an information-gathering trip to the Bank for International Settlements for delegates. at para. at paras 36–37. WTO Doc. when delegates are discussing recent domestic reforms in their own countries. S/FIN/M/27. S/FIN/M/46. to
WTO Doc. WTO Doc. See.g. particularly from developing countries – perhaps partly because of a perceived danger of incorporating over time the standards promulgated by such bodies into WTO law itself. S/FIN/M/32. and S/FIN/M/16.19 In addition. M/39. for example.18 More directly.20 The World Bank has also made a presentation to Committee members (in an informal seminar context) on the role of ﬁnancial sector liberalization in processes of economic development. Personnel from Turkey’s Banking Regulatory Authority and the Turkish Treasury. e. and there have been some efforts to increase the presence of capital-based experts in the work of the Committee.17 In addition to providing a forum for exchange between delegates from different Members. however. the International Monetary Fund was invited to put together a brieﬁng session for Committee members on its Financial Sector Assessment Program. S/FIN/M/41. WTO Doc.21 At a different level – and as some of the examples given earlier demonstrate – national regulators have themselves on numerous occasions visited the Committee to share their knowledge. This presentation is referred to in WTO Doc. WTO Docs S/FIN/M/32. S/FIN/M/40.g.15 Malaysia. For example. proposals to coordinate the work of the Committee more directly with transnational standard-setting bodies such as the International Association of Insurance Supervisors have at times been met with a degree of guarded scepticism. the Committee on Trade in Financial Services can also help to expose these delegates to the work other international organizations and transnational networks in the ﬁeld of ﬁnancial services..16 Mexico also shared the lessons it had learnt from is own experience of ﬁnancial instability.
.22 Interestingly. presented its view of the need to carry out ﬁnancial sector liberalization in a ‘careful and phased manner’ on the basis of its experience of the Asian ﬁnancial crisis. S/FIN/M/35.23 All of these occasions provide delegates with opportunities to air their differences about how the ﬁnancial services sector ought to be organized and regulated. This happens in a variety of semi-formal and informal ways. S/FIN/M/40. WTO Doc. 19.
.25 On a number of occasions speciﬁc programmes and measures implemented in one country have been said by other delegates to be of direct relevance to problems faced in theirs. 42 (discussion of Malaysia’s and others’ response to ﬁnancial crises).g. Similarly. while those countries which are more cautious about the process tend to make presentations highlighting the challenges that it poses in their speciﬁc contexts. or evaluating Members’ measures according to putatively universal guidelines. and as a ‘form of technical assistance’. when competing interpretations of the causes of Malaysia’s ﬁnancial crisis. 10.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
develop shared ideas about the common challenges faced by regulators in the sector.24 In addition. and even less open discussion. There are many who would see current levels of communication as seriously inadequate. At that time. and in which a spirit of cooperative endeavour necessarily prevails. In addition. 24. smaller countries in particular have expressed appreciation for the opportunities these discussions afford to ask questions of and learn lessons from countries which have already progressed some way down a path that they are considering. as a way of assisting the process of reform. Indeed. presentations elicited few responses. At the same time. often make self-serving presentations in these committees extolling the virtues of ﬁnancial sector liberalization. many delegates appear to appreciate the opportunity to share regulatory experience and ideas. for example. Demandeurs in ﬁnancial services negotiations. 32. Even later. S/FIN/M/31. and thereby led to a change in the expectations of trade partners in concurrent negotiations. when this agenda item was ﬁrst established – in the context of the ﬁnancial services negotiations after the conclusion of the Uruguay Round – the presentations seem at times to have been little more than self-justifying descriptions of recent efforts of liberalization. intended in part to inﬂuence the ongoing negotiations. at para. the discussion at times can become mildly adversarial – for example. were put forward in the Committee. Some delegates have expressed appreciation of the extent to which they have ‘increased awareness of possibilities and limitations deriving from the speciﬁcities of the situation’ in each country. and to exercise a form of multilateral peer review of one another’s policies. WTO Docs S/FIN/M/49. S/FIN/M/17.26 Provided that they do not stray into the territory of deﬁning a single standard of appropriate regulation. once a greater degree of interactivity had been established. S/FIN/M/29. S/FIN/M/27 (Mauritian ﬁnancial services regulator). E. WTO Doc.27 Even
WTO Doc. the dialogue seems often to have been conducted with an eye on future negotiations. we do not wish to overstate the extent of communication between the Committee on Trade in Financial Services and other transnational governance bodies working on ﬁnancial issues.
. and the effectiveness of its policy responses. S/FIN/M/18. S/FIN/M/14. WTO Docs S/FIN/M/42 (Turkey establishing local capital market). We do not wish to paint an idealized picture of a Committee in which conversations are always open and frank. these discussions do seem to contribute to a process of creating a shared knowledge base from which delegates proceed. to transmit ideas on different available tools and techniques to address them.
these papers formed the backbone of a set of discussions within the Services Council from June 1998 to April 1999. WTO Docs S/C/M/28–35. S/C/M/35. with somewhat different contours. . the Council was required by the same Article to ‘carry out an assessment of trade in services in overall terms and on a sectoral basis with reference to the objectives of this Agreement’. recent market developments. which made it difﬁcult for negotiators to determine the consequences of any liberalizing commitments that they made.582
EJIL 20 (2009). The Council approached this task in two phases. 23. Japan prepared an informal paper setting out an assessment of its own experience of services liberalization. S/C/M/34. The ﬁrst phase was called an Exchange of Information programme. was in part to provide delegates with usable information – and. with a view to assessing the underlying policies encouraged under the agreement. 32. in other institutions. 59–62. WTO Doc. the GATS envisages a progressive process of liberalization in services through successive rounds of negotiations. But such an assessment. the beneﬁts and challenges of liberalization.28 In concert with similar papers prepared by those delegations with the time and inclination. at para. has been organized through the Services Council itself. This Assessment was envisaged to be backward-looking. 43–47. particularly acute for developing countries. it was soon realized. The Secretariat produced background papers on 16 different service sectors.30 Efforts were therefore made to facilitate the assessment process by drawing on evaluations which had been made elsewhere. they do seem to develop common frameworks for describing and making sense of problems. and by the fact that various liberalization initiatives . existing regulatory frameworks and incidence of current trade barriers. The purpose of this assessment. and it focussed primarily (though not exclusively) on collecting information on existing barriers to services trade. In preparation for these negotiations.31 Norway submitted research from a
See the reports contained in WTO Docs S/C/W/37–40. As is well known.
. Article XIX of the GATS mandated the commencement of the ﬁrst round of such negotiations by 2000. on the basis of which a range of alternative available viewpoints as to how to address them can be expressed. a usable analytical framework – to help them collectively set appropriate ambitions and objectives for the negotiations. in the sense that it was to take stock and evaluate the outcomes of liberalization under the GATS. One of the reasons for including this requirement was to avoid a repetition of some of the difﬁculties that were faced during the Uruguay Round as a result of the lack of data on services trade. as well as the discussions in WTO Docs S/C/M/28–31. 49–52. drawing attention to relevant scholarly work. and addressing such issues as the economic importance of the sector at issue. and so on. 575–614
if they do not agree on a single solution. WTO Doc. A second programme. just as importantly. then. at para. had been negotiated too recently for any economic consequences to be observable’.29 The second phase was the ‘Assessment of Trade in Services’ itself. . was ‘rendered difﬁcult by the paucity of statistics. by the lack of information on whether GATS commitments had actually improved on trade regimes.
they do seem to provide one venue through which evolving expert knowledge about global services trade is disseminated amongst the Geneva trade community. S/C/M/38. they helped to build a practically authoritative store of collective knowledge. The third programme we wish to highlight relates to the apparently mundane and technical task of data collection. data on services trade – indeed. shared amongst negotiators and delegates. are ‘barriers to trade’ and which are ‘domestic regulation’? In order to measure and map the current state of the global services economy. WTO Doc.32 For its part. As other commentators have chronicled. on the economic effects of services trade liberalization. Common answers to a number of fundamental questions were needed if the data collected by statistical agencies and other institutions engaged in knowledge production were to be useful and comparable across jurisdictions. While these discussions within the Council were hardly the only source of information for delegates. and the ways in which they were likely to affect different countries’ interests. any kind of maps of the services economy – hardly existed at the time the GATS was being negotiated. and on recent developments in services trade – though. too. does ‘trade in services’ end and ‘immigration’ or ‘trade in goods’ begin? How is one to describe and classify the different kinds of services that are traded? Which.33 UNCTAD. S/C/M/39. gave its own assessment of the potential beneﬁts and costs of services liberalization for developing countries.S/C/W/26. they provided the occasion for processes of ‘collective sense-making’ among delegates in the Services Council.
. Where. as these delegates discussed and debated amongst themselves (albeit without approaching formal consensus) the different lessons that could and ought to be drawn from recent experience with liberalization. perhaps inevitably.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
Norwegian research institute which it said could provide a model to aid in the production of national assessments. and identifying key opportunities for developing countries. This was partly to do with the fact that such data had simply not been collected. In addition. but also partly because no common framework for their collection existed. for example. it is necessary collectively to settle on a shared way of mapping reality in terms of the core concepts of trade
WTO Doc. And at a more fundamental level.34 These examples – and in particular the UNCTAD presentation. among the almost infinite forms of regulatory interventions which affect services trade. S/C/W/94. WTO Docs S/C/W/27 . Members found these to contain insufﬁcient detail. setting out the key areas in which in its view developing countries had a comparative advantage (and which they did not). the WTO Secretariat prepared notes on existing statistics covering services trade. as well as UNCTAD’s later work – seem to have been inﬂuential in shaping the agendas and ambitions of developing country coalitions in the Doha Round. and in the services context the availability of an adequate knowledge base has presented a problem from the beginning. about the dynamics of the services economy. International trade negotiations are highly information intensive. They helped to provide a shared conceptual framework and a practical model for Members’ own national-level assessments.
used precisely GATS schedules as its data source. ‘Tentative First Steps: An Assessment of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Services’. the process of collecting data on services trade. UNCTAD. 575–614
vocabulary. the IMF. determine appropriate ways to address these inadequacies. and disseminated amongst delegates to the WTO and more broadly. Research in this area has consistently drawn on these WTO-compiled sources of data to ground expert analysis. In addition. which sets out a series of ﬁrst steps towards that agreed framework. Eurostat. modelling the potential implications of services liberalization. this body produced the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services. isolate the inadequacies of these data sources from the perspective of GATS negotiators. 1455. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. Most obviously (though this is outside the GATS committee structure we have been focussing on thus far) the WTO has since 1995 been involved in a major statistical project called the Interagency Task Force on Statistics of International Trade in Services. This Task Force is a collaboration between the OECD.worldbank.584
EJIL 20 (2009). and then promulgate guidelines to national (and relevant international) statistical bodies on how to collect data in a more usable way. in 1995.
. and the UN Statistics Division. through which each WTO Member has its trade and economic policies periodically subject to review and criticism by its peers.36 More speciﬁcally. answers to a questionnaire sent out by the Working Party
Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services (2002).org/ext ernal/default/main?pagePK=64165259&piPK=64165421&theSitePK=469372&menuPK=6421692 6&entityID=000009265_3961019105408. and determining strategic interests can begin. Once this common basis is settled. The most obvious example is the Trade Policy Review Mechanism. As part of its surveillance function – by which the WTO is tasked to monitor the trade policies of its Members – various bodies within the WTO have begun to collect precisely this kind of information. available at: http://econ. but also the nature and incidence of existing barriers to trade in services. The point we wish to make here is that the WTO has been deeply involved in the processes by which collective knowledge about the global services economy is being produced.35 Services committees themselves are involved in processes of data production in a different way. Even the schedules of commitments entered into by each participant in the Uruguay Round negotiations produced a database – albeit an imperfect one – of information about existing barriers to trade in services. The very ﬁrst attempt comprehensively to map global barriers to trade in services. The reports generated by this mechanism provide one source of data on the trade policies of Members and how they have changed over time. Its purpose is to identify sources of existing data on services trade. Article III:3 requires Members promptly to inform the Council of any new measures they establish which signiﬁcantly affect trade in services covered by its liberalization commitments. Services negotiations require data not only on the nature and extent of trade ﬂows. For example. the Council for Trade in Services itself receives and compiles information on certain trade barriers imposed by WTO Members pursuant to a number of transparency disciplines contained in the GATS. the WTO. May 1995. Hoekman. In 2002.
and Smith. Schuele. The documentary record of the safeguard negotiations. Warren (eds). yields a picture of discussions which are largely ungrounded and rudderless. VI:4. See GATS Arts X:1. Canberra. including its committee system. has been helpful for those attempting to map trade restrictions in the accountancy sector. in respect of domestic regulations in the accountancy sector. and so on – but very little by way of concrete result. at para. XIII:2.38 Of course. during the Uruguay Round. and that administrative spaces within the WTO represent important venues in which this is taking place. which has proven to be an important source of information for policy analysis in that sector. at 201. Australia. The negotiations of government procurement in services have been affected by the heightened political sensitivity around all discussions of government procurement in the WTO.
. WTO Document S/WPGR/9. 2000. In part. in C. draft texts. the Negotiating Group on Maritime Transport Services distributed a questionnaire requesting information from Members on the different kinds of trade restrictive measures they had in place.
B Norm Elaboration
In addition to the function of information exchange. ‘Restrictiveness of International Trade in Maritime Services’.39 The Working Party on GATS Rules (WPGR) was established in March 1995 in part to facilitate and host negotiations on the ﬁrst three of these issues. the signiﬁcant observation to be drawn from this is that – like other international economic institutions before it – the WTO seems to be beginning to take on a role as a producer of knowledge in the area of services. The subsidy negotiations have foundered in part because of fundamental disagreements about what kinds of measures should and should not be classiﬁed as subsidies. the information captured through these and other mechanisms is neither comprehensive nor in some cases sufﬁciently reliable without further veriﬁcation. GATS committees also engage in processes of norm elaboration.37 Earlier. at least in Cancún. Rather. Productivity Commission Staff Research Paper. while the Working Party on Professional Services (now the Working Party on Domestic Regulation) addresses the last. this work is treaty-mandated: the GATS itself requires ongoing negotiations to produce new general rules relating to four distinct issue areas: safeguards. It is not our claim that the WTO. government procurement. at least in terms of the production of agreed rules and texts. ‘Restrictions on Trade in Professional Services’. and so-called ‘domestic regulation’. AusInfo. XV:1. 18. discussion papers. starting to position itself as a key institution in the collection and dissemination of data about the global services economy. reports.
See Nguyen-Hong. disclosing ‘no common basis’40 on which to draft rules. They have generated a good deal of activity – meetings. subsidies. for example.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
on Professional Services. Impediments to Trade in Services: Measurement and Policy Implications (2000). As all commentators agree. Findlay and T. Aug. See McGuire.C. has established itself as the only authoritative source of statistical data on barriers to services trade. these negotiations have been far less successful than had been hoped.
and secondly.42 But progress on this front has to some extent been tied to the success of the Doha Round of negotiations more generally. ‘capital account reform’. it was clear that this issue was new to a number of delegates. whether capital account liberalization was generally desirable and if so in what circumstances.
. in which Brazil raised the question of the distinction between ‘liberalization of ﬁnancial services trade’ and ‘capital account liberalization’. 22 Penn State Int’l L Rev (2005) 696. This. was not the intention of the GATS legal framework – capital account liberalization raising a range of special and controversial economic and policy questions – and he requested a discussion clarifying the ‘common understanding’ of participants as to the meaning and intent of the relevant GATS provisions. rather than simple liberalization of ﬁnancial services. producing after roughly three years an agreed text containing new disciplines on domestic regulation in the accountancy sector. then. but of intense interest to many. ‘Lawyers. in the view of the representative of Brazil. in which that representative drew a distinction between ‘domestic ﬁnancial sector reforms’. and qualiﬁcation requirements relating to all service sectors. where there is a particular ambiguity in an existing legal provision which a delegation wishes to have clariﬁed. based on suggestions from Members. A representative of the IMF was invited to make a presentation on the issue. and ‘trade in ﬁnancial services’ as ‘inter-related.43 The representative of Brazil complained that in the course of negotiations it had been asked to make commitments which in his view amounted to a full opening of capital account transactions. whether GATS commitments in their current form required capital account liberalization.
See WTO Doc. WTO Docs S/FIN/M/38–40.586
EJIL 20 (2009). First. the WPDR has continued its work drafting more general disciplines on technical standards. It would be misleading. to leave the story there. licensing. GATS and the WTO Accountancy Disciplines: The History of the WTO’s Consultation. On the basis of this presentation (as well as a paper from the World Bank) delegates exchanged views on two questions: ﬁrst. or where a new service arises and it is not clear whether and how existing law applies to it. issues related to the content or application of legal norms can sometimes be brought to a Committee for discussion. In the discussions which followed. there is good reason for the common perception that services committees have largely failed so far as venues for the elaboration of new formal norms and principles. yet distinct processes’. S/L/64. even in the absence of new formally agreed texts.41 Since then. An interesting example is contained in a discussion initiated in a meeting of the Committee on Trade in Financial Services in December 2002. 575–614
The work on domestic regulation was initially more successful. For an interesting account of this process see Terry. as to how these disciplines might be amended and updated to apply to alternative service sectors. It has sought input and advice from a carefully selected group of non-governmental organizations. There are at least two important ways in which these committees are involved in the gradual development of shared norms. esp. at 706–710. however. and set out the IMF’s views on the beneﬁts and challenges of each. By and large. the IBA GATS Forum and the September 2003 IBA Resolutions’.
The United States. in which a number of countries expressed their view that this was never the intention of GATS negotiators. which can provide a background against which GATS obligations are then interpreted. it appears that discussion within Committees are performing the important function of knitting together a kind of interpretive community for the GATS – not going so far as to settle on particular formal interpretations of GATS norms. and came to a preliminary view that the last category ought not to be covered by GATS provisions. ‘services incidental to manufacturing’. E. Discussions of this type can over time help to build common conceptual frameworks and shared ideas about the fundamental objectives and limits of the GATS. considered that as a matter of strict legal interpretation the imposition of different tax treatment by sub-federal units (states) may in itself constitute discrimination. delegates after some discussion drew a distinction between ‘services provided to manufacturers’. Nevertheless. WTO Doc. WTO Doc. in practice they do provide a mechanism by which certain kinds of expert knowledge come to shape and inform legal interpretation in this area.44 After some discussion. and certainly led to no formal agreement. when it was noted that the growing practice of outsourcing manufacturing to specialist providers of ‘manufacturing services’ could expand the scope of the GATS to many areas always thought to be covered only by the GATT. and they provided a venue in which the trade community could look to ﬁnancial services experts for guidance on how they ought to understand and interpret the meaning of GATS commitments in the ﬁnancial services sector. and ‘manufacturing services’.47 In these examples. WTO Doc. these discussions should be distinguished from the formal processes of authoritative legal interpretation conducted through the dispute settlement mechanism. they drew attention to many Members’ intentions not to commit to capital account liberalization. and (in principle at least) by the General Council and Ministerial Council of the WTO. Of course. for example. delegates were willing to come to a consensus that ‘spectrum management’ measures in the area of telecommunications regulation were not intended to be limited by GATS obligations – whatever the strict wording of the agreement. Similarly. Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the WTO. they performed three potentially signiﬁcant functions to aid in the ongoing elaboration and evolution of GATS legal norms: they highlighted a common agreement among participants that there is a distinction between ‘trade in ﬁnancial services’ and ‘capital account liberalization’ (even if it is still not clear where one ends and the other begins). S/C/M/1.. but rather to agree on common understandings about the limits and boundaries of trade liberalization in the services context. S/CSC/M/17. it was agreed to keep the matter under consideration and not to bring the question before dispute settlement.46 And. S/C/M/18. IX. these discussions were inconclusive. S/C/M/2. There are other examples which can be mentioned.g.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
Perhaps unsurprisingly. and raised this as a point of concern in the Services Council. Art.
.48 Discussions within GATS Committees have very
WTO Doc. This last point is perhaps the most important: regardless of the lack of formal legal authority of these discussions.45 This informal settlement has been honoured.
services committees have been indirectly involved in processes of norm elaboration in the context of their relationships with international regulatory and standard-setting bodies. of course. Members shall work in cooperation with relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations towards the establishment and adoption of common international standards and criteria for recognition and common international standards for the practice of relevant services trades and professions.49 But their ability to command practical adherence has so far been considerable. WTO Doc. For example. These relationships can take a number of forms.. have their own limits. ‘No Outsourcing of Law? WTO Law as Practiced by WTO Courts’. and whether services provided over the internet fell within the deﬁnition of ‘Mode 1’ or ‘Mode 2’ services delivery under GATS Article I:2.) Footnote 3 to that provision then goes on to specify that the ‘relevant international organizations’ are ‘international bodies whose membership is open to the relevant bodies of at least all Members of the WTO’. see Mavroiïdis. For example.5 of the GATS further provides that:
In appropriate cases.588
EJIL 20 (2009). We drew attention above to the few instances of informal information exchange which has at times occurred between the Committee on Trade in Financial Services and bodies such as the Bank for International Settlements. it has been suggested. Article VII. as well as a certain authoritative knowledge of their intended spirit.
(The obligations in paragraph 5(a) are interim obligations on the application of licensing and qualiﬁcation requirements and technical standards pending the entry into force of new disciplines on domestic regulation. It is interesting to note that much of this informal norm elaboration occurred in the early years of the operation of GATS committees. the text of the GATS itself establishes an indirect role for standard-setting organizations in the WTO’s servicesrelated activities. See supra note 19. potentially including decisions of this kind. questions were raised about whether services delivered over the internet could be considered ‘like’ services provided by other means (a term of art in WTO non-discrimination jurisprudence). account shall be taken of international standards of relevant international organizations applied by that Member. considering them legal issues properly directed to the judicial organs of the WTO. It may also have to do with a desire not to pre-empt judicial decision-making. 102 AJIL (2008) 421. who felt a degree of stewardship of the agreements.g.
. often none at all. 575–614
little formal legal authority.51 In addition. Such processes of norm elaboration do.50 Secondly. in the context of the work programme on e-commerce. E. S/C/M/31. delegates refused to answer such questions directly. and much less has occurred more recently. By and large. paragraph 5(b) of Article VI provides that:
In determining whether a Member is in conformity with the obligation under paragraph 5(a). particularly where they take the form of exhortations to refrain from dispute settlement. may have to do with the departure from Geneva of the original negotiators of the GATS. and accompanying text.
For a leading account of the formal authority of WTO ‘secondary law’. and vary in their efﬁcacy and signiﬁcance. This.
the International Organization for Standardization. JOB(01)/98. ﬁnal sentence. in the context of the negotiations on disciplines in the accounting sector. in subsequent negotiations extending beyond accounting services. S/WPPS/W/2. For example. The precise role that WTO committees play in these broader networks varies. S/WPPS/W/7. See the reference to the seminar on such standards in S/WPPS/M/5 and S/WPPS/1. For a full list of all the organizations see WTO Doc. While forms of cooperation between WTO committees and these standard-setting bodies remain relatively thin at this stage. for example. and many others.tw/ SmartKMS/ﬁleviewer?id=2457. WT/MIN(96)/DEC. There is. informally encourage governments to participate more actively in the work of these standard-setting bodies.org. at para.54 information on existing domestic regulation was informally shared between the IFAC and the WPPS.57 In addition.wtocenter. international standards promulgated by the International Federation of Accountants and the International Accounting Standards Committee were carefully analysed at an early stage. the Australian delegate to the Committee on Trade in Financial Services raised the issue of the meaning of this
See WTO Doc. and IOSCO. IASC. E. S/L/3.58 One lesson from these and other examples is that – even where the WTO committees are not themselves producing new texts and formal rules – they seem in some cases to becoming part of broader networks of associations and organizations which are themselves very much in the business of creating (soft) international standards and norms. contribute to the effort of monitoring domestic implementation of standards. clearly a concern among some members about the direction in which these thin forms of cooperation are heading. actors within the trade regime have reached out to a variety of other professional organizations. WTO Doc.56 and Members expressed their support for the ongoing development of international standards by IFAC.59 In the middle of 1999.52 This provision has helped to provide an impetus for the development of relationships between the WPPS/WPDR and certain professional standard-setting organizations. available at: www. Singapore Ministerial Declaration. 2(a) of the Annex on Financial Services to the GATS..The Hidden World of WTO Governance
The Decision establishing the Working Party on Professional Services (the precursor to the WPDR. tasked with conducting negotiations under Article VI) also required that body to ‘take account of the importance of the governmental and non-governmental bodies regulating professional services’. Their activities may help to promote awareness of international standards across new constituencies.g. and help to disseminate international standards by using them to orient discussion. See para. 17. See the reference to this process in S/WPPS/M/1.53 the IFAC was invited to give a seminar to the WPPS. there are some who see the potential for it to develop further.
.55 information on the use of IFAC and IASC standards within WTO Members was collected. See the questionnaire attached to WTO Doc. such as the International Bar Association. requesting their input on the appropriate form that new disciplines could take in relation to their sector. and depends on context. Discussions around the ‘prudential carve-out’ in the Annex on Financial Services provide one illustration.
The delegate of Malaysia noted the tendency even for information-gathering efforts to turn into standard-setting exercises. 2. the Australian delegate suggested an exchange of views on the subject. insisting that national protective measures be based upon a risk assessment.590
EJIL 20 (2009). It covers measures applied to protect against a range of speciﬁed risks to animal. and with the regulation of pests and diseases in agriculture. contaminants. and place great emphasis upon testing the adequacy of the scientiﬁc foundations of regulation. it was not the role of the WTO to develop uniform standards for prudential regulation.63 Article 5. The SPS Agreement imposes a series of open-ended obligations on Member States.60 This proposal generated very strong resistance. WT/DS320/AB/R. animal.2 and 5.. See especially ibid. See especially Arts 2. for an elaboration of this. See Annex A(1) for the deﬁnition of an SPS measure. and it was far preferable to have a prudential carve-out which was unclear but was sufﬁciently ﬂexible to cover different approaches. In the interests of clarity. See in particular EC – Measures Concerning Meat and Meat Products (Hormones). and J. and human health. Australia – Measures Affecting the Importation of Salmon. and what could properly be brought within this exception.1. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement: A Commentary (2007). WTO Docs S/FIN/M/24–26. but also a ‘rational relationship’ between this and the measure in question. and Japan – Measures Affecting the Importation of Apples. or disease-causing organisms in food. WT/DS245/AB/R. This concerns measures applied to protect human. WT/DS18/AB/R. S/FIN/M/25. and observed (along with some other delegates) that the development of a common understanding among participants might be facilitated by the consideration of the views of other international bodies such as the Basel Committee and the IAIS. toxins. Scott. particularly from developing countries. as well as regulators themselves.62 It is concerned with food safety regulation. plant.1 is exemplary in this respect. and disputed the need for a ‘common understanding’ of prudential measures. including those arising from additives. and most recently United States – Continued Suspension of Obligations in the Hormones Dispute. These are controversial in that they take the WTO beyond a discrimination-based approach to international trade.
. this being construed as implying not only the existence of a risk assessment. WT/DS26/AB/R. In these countries’ view.
3 The Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
The SPS Agreement forms part of the WTO Agreement.65 In so doing they perform the
WTO Doc. 575–614
carve-out – different countries clearly had different ideas of what constituted ‘prudential’ regulation. or plant health from one of the speciﬁed risks.61 It seems likely that these delegates’ concerns were motivated precisely by their recognition of the important normative consequences to which such discussions can potentially lead in practice.64 The WTO ‘courts’ have been active in giving shape and meaning to the requirements laid down. at ch.
which entails the adoption of a decision by a certain date if no objection is circulated. Secondly. special meetings may be convened by the chair on his or her own initiative. three or four regular meetings are arranged. The SPS Committee performs three primary functions. or at the request of a Member. to consider a matter of signiﬁcant importance or urgency. The committee has adopted its own working procedures.71 In principle ‘observer status should be granted to organizations which objectively contribute to the functioning and implementation of the SPS Agreement’.68 and the committee is assisted by a secretariat. Caribbean and Paciﬁc Countries (ACP).70 Other bodies have been granted ad hoc. European Free Trade Association (EFTA). the Latin American Economic System (SELA). and the Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OIRSA). The committee comprises representatives of WTO Member states. or specialists drawn from a relevant ministry within the Member States. but on-going. Others included are the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). These tend to be either diplomats attached to UN or WTO missions in Geneva. The study of the committee is a study in institutional practice. These include the relevant international standard-setting bodies (the so-called sister organizations). it operates as a forum for the raising by Members of ‘specific trade concerns’. it has
See also Arts 3.5 SPS Agreement which identify further tasks for the committee. with additional informal meetings arranged around the edge. A chairperson is appointed on an annual basis. In reality. the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). rather than a study in static institutional form.69 which require that at least two meetings be held each year. WTO Doc. G/SPS/W/98. and offers little by way of insight into its composition. and is often drawn from a list of possible candidates forwarded by the committee to the Council.66 It is established to provide a regular forum for consultations.72 It is notable that non-governmental observers are not admitted. International Organization for Standardization (ISO). the committee is a creature of its own making. the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A number of inter-governmental bodies enjoy permanent observer status in the committee. and is charged with carrying out the functions necessary to implement the agreement and to further its objectives. in consultation with the committee. the African. Article 12 SPS establishes an SPS Committee. observer status. The existence of the much-discussed WTO ‘courts’ does not however exhaust the institutional architecture of the SPS Agreement. We are told that it operates by consensus and little more. including in relation to food safety. at para. The Chair is selected by the Council for Trade in Goods. the Codex Alimentarius. and to a signiﬁcant degree. role. The agreement is skeletal in its speciﬁcations regarding the committee.
. See WTO Docs G/SPS/1 and G/L/170.67 As such. The committee frequently makes decisions on an ad referendum basis. Consensus means that no Member formally objects.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
important function of delimiting the scope of Member State regulatory autonomy in sensitive policy areas. In addition. These are the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). International Trade Centre (ITC).3 and 5. the World Bank. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). 7. and lays down a number of tasks to be performed by it. and mode of operation. and the International Plant Protection Convention. First.
the speciﬁc trade concern raised related to measures maintained by a developing country. 55. See: http://spsims. 3. This includes information on speciﬁc trade concerns. G/SPS/R/10. We will consider each of these in turn.592
EJIL 20 (2009). This had been attributed to an outbreak of cholera in these countries. the committee operates as a multilateral forum in which Members are called upon to explain and justify their (proposed) regulations. at para. The Member raising any such concern may receive the support of other Members. WTO Doc. One example concerned an EU safeguard measure relating to the importation of fruit. 57. the SPS secretariat.wto. and re-visit some of those previously raised. with the support of the observer representative of the WHO.75 The WHO also assisted in ongoing bilateral consultations between the countries concerned.org/. the committee has emerged as an important site for the elaboration of the open-ended norms laid down in the agreement. During the years 1995–2007. at para. The issue was raised by Tanzania in the committee.73 Members consider at each meeting new trade concerns. at paras. 261 speciﬁc trade concerns were raised. and searching for. 575–614
established a procedure to monitor the harmonization activities of its sister organizations. 5/Add. WTO Doc. Developing countries have been active participants in this process.3. has prepared an annual paper summarizing the speciﬁc trade concerns which have been raised. The WHO representative observed that cholera was not only a problem in these four countries.76 Since 2000.5/Add. G/SPS/204/Rev. at the request of the committee. In 125 cases. and ﬁsh from four African countries. He pointed to the almost non-existent risk to countries importing food from cholera-affected countries. WTO Docs G/SPS/R/11.
A Speciﬁc Trade Concerns
One important mechanism for information exchange which has grown up organically in the committee is its routine consideration of speciﬁc trade concerns. and G/SPS/GEN/204/Rev. 99. at para. Thirdly. and to the alleged risk of transmission of cholera through foodstuffs containing fresh water.
. 55–56. before turning to analyse the nature and significance of interactions in the committee. Though the EU objected that WHO intervention was not appropriate. and to the ﬁnding that ‘[a]lthough there is a theoretical risk of Cholera transmission associated with some food commodities moving in international trade. vegetables. Of
The secretariat has devised an SPS Information Management System which makes the process of obtaining. this has rarely proved signiﬁcant and authorities should seek means of dealing with it other than by applying an embargo on importation’. information much easier. and expressed the view that the EU measure was not necessary. They have raised 126 speciﬁc trade concerns and supported 177 other such concerns raised by other Members. and that at least 50 per cent of countries worldwide were affected by regular outbreaks. but also on other issues such as equivalence. Here.74 He drew attention to the WTO guidance on the topic. the international standard-setters in the field. it removed the measure following consultations and reassurances that the necessary guarantees to protect public health were in place.
or to demonstrate its capacity to do so. The Member in question may abrogate. 5/Part 4.82 China lifted its ban on Dutch products of animal origins. 5/ Part 4. First. following an inspection visit and the conclusion of a risk assessment. at paras 12–15. G/SPS/GEN/204/Rev. following a re-evaluation of Brazilian control systems.79 And Korea indicated that its zero tolerance criteria for listeria would no longer apply to meat for further processing or cooking. 8. G/SPS/GEN/204/Rev. G/SPS/GEN/204/Rev. e.5/Part 4. the EU altered its proposal for the setting of maximum aﬂatoxin levels in certain foodstuffs. WTO Doc. at paras 59–60. and to an increase in understanding and knowledge of the protection systems in place in other states. or delay the introduction of the (proposed) measure. at para. WTO Doc.84 It is hard to be certain about cause and effect when it comes to the resolution of speciﬁc trade concerns. WTO Doc. G/SPS/GEN/204/Rev. mitigate./Part 4. or to the establishment of a joint working group.77 Resolution of a speciﬁc trade concern may ﬂow from an adjustment in the regulatory expectations of an importing Member. The committee acknowledges that others may have been resolved and not reported as such. the raising of a speciﬁc trade concern often operates as a catalyst for close cooperation between representatives of the Member States concerned. Secondly. in certain cases it seems clear that the raising of such concerns operates to sensitize Members as to the external impact of their regulatory proposals. the establishment of a joint EC–Australia expert working group following the raising of a speciﬁc trade concern by the EU in relation to Australian restrictions on the importation of pig meat: WTO Doc. following deliberations in the committee and in Codex. HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points and embodies a management-based approach to regulation. 5/ Part 4. at paras 96–98. See. WTO Doc. Three factors seem to play a particularly important role in facilitating agreement between Members. For example. 5/Part 4. G/SPS/GEN/204/Rev. WTO Doc. following negotiated agreement on a series of risk management procedures. 75 have been resolved and 18 partially resolved. 56.80 Resolution of speciﬁc trade concerns may also ﬂow from an enhancement in the capacity of the exporting Member to meet the applicable standards. 5/Part 4. having veriﬁed that fruit ﬂy had been successfully eradicated.78 The Philippines deferred on an indeﬁnite basis its demand for independent third party certiﬁcation of HACCP plans. and from an increase in levels of mutual trust. WTO Doc. G/SPS/GEN/204/Rev. at paras 53–54. 5.
. at paras 21–24.g. Thus. Australia modiﬁed its tolerance level for benzoic acid in sauces. but from a shift in perception as to the regulatory capacities of other states. 5/Part 4.81 The EU lifted its emergency measures on dioxin in citrus pulp. G/SPS/GEN/204/Rev. G/SPS/GEN/204/Rev. at para. G/SPS/GEN/204/Rev. and in the light of strong and repeated representations by a number of Members (including developing country Members) spelling out
WTO Doc. around one third have been reported as resolved or partially resolved. to be re-evaluated after one year.83 And Australia lifted its ban on Californian table grapes. at paras 64–67. at paras 28–33. To illustrate. Indonesia lifted its restrictions on New Zealand fresh fruit..85 Resolution may ﬂow not so much from an adjustment in concrete regulatory expectations or performance.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
the 245 trade concerns raised. WTO Doc. It may lead to inspection visits. and to alter their expectations in the light of this. 8.
e. See. 30. There is much evidence to support the view that the activities of the committee lead to a ratcheting up of standards. whereas Bolivia ‘clariﬁed’ that the amount was less than this. ofﬁcials from the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) reviewed the Mexican government’s guidelines to assist the cantaloupe industry achieve compliance. compliance with the regulation forming the subject matter of the complaint. at para. and in some cases ﬁnance. 575–614
the profoundly negative consequences of the proposal for them. All that said. and G/SPS/R/12. 31.90 The United States resolved to work closely with the government of Mexico and Mexican cantaloupe producers. The US continues to express concern about this requirement and is not satisﬁed with the scientiﬁc basis for it. FDA ofﬁcials also worked closely with individual producers to ensure the submission of appropriate information and data to facilitate abrogation of the ban on a case-by-case basis. 65. at para. although the exact amount made available remains unclear.88 This assistance was directed in the main at the introduction of a national certiﬁcation and accreditation mechanism which would allow for certiﬁcation of compliance by accredited domestic laboratories prior to export.
. and G/SPS/29. See G/SPS/R/37. WTO Docs G/SPS/R/10. following protests from Canada and the United States emphasizing the extent of the disruption to trade that would ensue.86 More recently the EU delayed the introduction of measures on wood packaging. but characterized also by
The aﬂatoxin saga is a long-running one.. in a bid to facilitate. G/SPS/R/11. at para. EU ofﬁcials assisted in identifying private laboratories able to carry out the necessary tests. It is clear in the light of these technical assistance activities that the committee should not be seen only as generating peer pressure in favour of de-regulation. and related to both of the above. G/SPS/R/35. 11. it seems that the activities of the committee generate greater empathy between Members and a heightened awareness of the needs and difﬁculties of other states.89 Such efforts are apparent also following the raising by Mexico of a speciﬁc trade concern relating to an emergency ban imposed by the United States on the importation of cantaloupe melons. and technical exchanges on certiﬁcation took place. thus greatly mitigating the disruptive effects on trade. at para. at para. An IPPC standard is under development. the EU agreed to provide substantial technical assistance to Bolivia in order to assist with compliance with EU standards. at para. WTO Docs G/SPS/R/28. 179. 28. To this end. 24. 65. especially WTO Docs G/SPS/R/20.g. See. The EU claims to have provided $17 million. at para. at para. G/SPS/R/25. at para. WTO Doc. at para. and G/SPS/R/36. The aﬂatoxin example is relevant once more.87 Though hard to verify empirically. the raising of a speciﬁc trade concern often acts as a prelude to the provision of technical assistance. 15. it should not be forgotten that the activities of the committee take shape in a system which is not ‘merely’ cooperative. at para. pending the introduction by Mexico of a certiﬁcation programme based on good agricultural and manufacturing practice. Here. See WTO Doc. 208. by virtue of its role in enhancing the regulatory compliance capacities of Member States. Thirdly. This was due to the presence of salmonella in a number of previously imported consignments. 33. G/SPS/R/27.594
EJIL 20 (2009).
codexalimentarius. norms.oie. WT/DS231/AB/R. See Annex A(3)(d). the default expectation that measures should be based on international standards has been deemed not to give rise to a burden of proof penalty. For the purpose of dispute settlement. Together with the SPS Committee.96 Secondly.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
the presence of binding. www. where a national measure is not based on an international standard. or where no relevant standard
See Annex A(2). Also. and the equivalent provisions in the TBT Agreement were construed by the AB in EC – Trade Description of Sardines. in the activities of these bodies.ippc. if open-ended.95 While binding. www. supra note 69. As with the cholera example above. it creates a default expectation that Members will base their measures on relevant international standards.
.int/IPP/En/default. It does this in two ways. 7. See. and other WTO organs. See.94 The SPS Agreement confers special status on standards emanating from these bodies. 3.3 have been construed by the AB in EC – Hormones. to promote within them the development and review of SPS standards. 3.1 and 3. discussions sometimes proceed by reference to the obligations laid down in the SPS Agreement. or where no such international standard exists.1 SPS. acting by consensus.92 the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) with responsibility for animal health and welfare93 and animal production food safety issues.
B International Harmonization
The agricultural and food policy domain is densely populated at the international level. for further information. First. Arts 3.3 SPS.3 SPS. within the limits of their resources.net/web/index_en. www.91 The relevant organizations are the Codex Alimentarius Commission with responsibility for food safety.1 and 3. and promoting appropriate measures for their control. See Art. the scope of the agreement’s transparency requirements is defined by reference to the existence of international standards. The committee operates in the shadow of hierarchy. susceptible to enforcement by the WTO ‘courts’. See. 3.97 Many of the specific trade concerns raised by Members relate to measures which are notified in this way.jsp. Three such bodies (the sister organizations referred to above) are identiﬁed in the SPS Agreement and their standards accorded special status by it. supra note 63.4 which provides that Members shall play a full part.htm. The notification obligation which seeks to ensure timely publication of regulatory proposals bites only in respect of measures which are not substantially the same as an international standard.1. and Arts 3. Other bodies may be identiﬁed by the committee. and the International Plant Protection Convention.int/eng/en_index. there exists a range of inter-governmental actors including various standard-setting bodies. for example the risk assessment requirement in Article 5. departure from these standards is conditional upon this being necessary to achieve a Member’s higher level of SPS protection.jsp. concerned with preventing the spread and introduction of pests in plants and plant products. See also Art. for further information. at ch. and hence even where a measure is not based on an international standard. See Annex B(5) SPS. for further information. See Art. For a full discussion of this case law see Scott. in disputes before a panel the complaining party will still bear the initial burden.
. with the committee inviting the relevant body to consider adopting or revising a standard. Ibid. 12. WTO Doc. The centrality of international standards in defining the scope of Members’ procedural obligations to notify measures and to give reasons in relation to them has been somewhat reduced by a recent revision to the committee’s recommended procedures for implementing the transparency obligations. indicating in particular whether it considers that the standard is not stringent enough to achieve that Member’s SPS objective. one of which is to monitor the use by Member States of international standards. They must. But it does more than this.8 SPS.100 This is a point to which we will return below. adopted on 20 June 2008. This monitoring procedure was established in 1997. and now operates on a permanent basis.. See Art.98 Again. See WTO Doc.102 This procedure serves an oversight function. Still on the theme of international standards. G/SPS/40.g. on standards under consideration or undergoing revision. most recently. that Member is obliged to provide reasons for this. exchanges within the committee serve to reinforce this. This monitoring procedure is intended to assist in identifying where a new standard is needed. setting out the results of the monitoring procedure. G/SPS/7/Rev. provide an explanation of the reasons for the measure. Thus. and exchange of information situates the committee as an interlocutor in the process of international harmonization. constituting an on-going form of peer review of Member States’ use or non-use of international standards. 5. at para.1. A(8).101 To this end the committee is to establish a list of international standards deemed to have a major trade impact. G/ SPS/11/Rev. In keeping with the second function identified in Article 12.99 These now ‘encourage’ Members to notify regulations which are based on. or conform to. On the basis of this procedure. e. WTO Doc. and also for recent revisions to the procedure WTO Doc. G/SPS/42 (8th report). See. it also serves to monitor the process of international harmonization. including because of perceived deficiencies in the level of protection which it provides. either in writing or through presentations in committee. and of Member states’ reliance on them. or when an existing standard is not appropriate.4. upon request by another Member. See. where these are expected to have a significant impact on trade. 3. It has
See Art. and to provide information.4 SPS.103 This process of monitoring. Members incur a reason-giving requirement. 575–614
exists. Where it is revealed that a Member departs from international standards. the monitoring process serves as a catalyst for dialogue between the committee and the sister organizations. international standards.. the SPS Agreement calls upon the committee to develop a procedure to perform two functions. the SPS secretariat will submit a written annual report to the body in question.596
EJIL 20 (2009). dialogue.
2. the committee has been somewhat reluctant to give voice to process concerns expressed by Members. merely setting out some ‘initial elements’ for further discussion.4. 12 concerning the scientific impossibility of providing certiﬁcation of raw meat products regarding the absence of pathogens.108 The SPS Committee was unable to put forward any clear recommendations in respect of this (or any other) proposal. 4. See for a discussion WTO Doc. This involves. in terms of the existence or adequacy of standards. at para. G/SPS/35.105 and on another it issued a communication which aimed at clearing up ‘apparent misunderstandings about the nature and purpose of the OIE international standards.107 They have reported in some detail on these initiatives to the committee.). and for the proposal WTO Doc. See 2nd report (WTO Doc. at paras 8 and 10.106 The monitoring procedure is in practice largely focussed upon substance. WTO Doc. at para. such as actions by the international standard-setting bodies’.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
led in a small number of cases to the adoption of new standards. at para. 11. G/SPS/31). the organization in question rejected the need for a speciﬁc text. such
See 8th report (ibid. See the 6th report (WTO Doc. 38. in part. The committee has been less successful and more reticent when it comes to monitoring the process of international harmonization in accordance with the language of Article 12. relating in particular to the capacity of developing country Members to participate effectively in the work of the standard setting bodies. 17. and progress to date in the adoption of new standards. G/SPS/35. it was proposed in the context of the Doha Development Agenda that a facility be established within the Global Trust Fund for ensuring the attendance and effective participation of developing country Members in the relevant standard-setting bodies. Nonetheless. 3rd report (WTO Doc.109
C Norm Elaboration
The SPS Committee performs an important norm elaboration function.104 On other occasions.
. This would seem to reﬂect the sense of the committee that one of the constraints on framing positive recommendations was the fact that a number of proposals submitted ‘would require action outside the sphere of inﬂuence of the SPS Committee. Discussion of developing country participation in standard-setting is conspicuously absent from even these elements laid out. at para. G/SPS/37). these concerns have been repeatedly expressed. G/SPS/18). This mirrors the reluctance of the AB to impose process conditions on standard setting bodies as a condition for their authority in the TBT and SPS Agreements. G/SPS/35. and exposes them to some sort of external oversight. WTO Doc. the sister organization in question has reported back to the committee on work in progress – including the constitution of technical and scientiﬁc reviews. On at least one occasion. G/SPS/16). at para. at paras 4–9. or to the revision of existing ones. in keeping with the idea of information exchange. TN/CTD/W/3/Rev. Along the same lines. 7th report (WTO Doc. an elaboration of rules and principles for the operation of the committee. While it renders the activities of these bodies more transparent. and the sister organizations have taken some important steps in a bid to facilitate developing country participation. their implementation and interpretation’. at paras 26–29.
WTO Doc. G/SPS/W/218. 3. These relate to Art. recommendations. e.7 SPS. G/SPS/7/Rev.g. and to submit speciﬁc suggestions for consideration by the committee.5 consistency requirement. 575–614
as its rules of procedure or its development of criteria for the granting of observer status. These instruments inject an element of dynamism into the SPS Agreement. 7 and Annex B SPS. repeatedly encouraging or inviting them to provide insights from their experiences in implementation. See WTO Doc. and also involves the elaboration of the openended provisions of the SPS Agreement. The measures build upon the relevant norms on an ongoing rather than on a one-off basis. and in accordance with the agreement. 2. G/SPS/33. with revisions and addenda being added on a regular basis. as experience with the revision of the recommended notiﬁcation procedures shows. at para. The review obligation is set out in Art. 6 SPS.. G/SPS/15. the committee has elaborated a procedure to enhance the transparency of special and differential treatment in favour of developing countries. especially in chs 2 and 4.118 The committee. the committee has adopted an equivalence decision in response to a request by the General Council that it examine the concerns of developing country Members regarding the equivalence of SPS measures.
. 12. where its obligation to do so was presented as a collective obligation of the Member States. However.111 These take a variety of forms: guidelines.598
EJIL 20 (2009). G/SPS/33) which provides that the committee shall review the proposed notiﬁcation process to evaluate its implementation and to determine whether any changes are required or its continuation warranted. See Art. these build upon the transparency obligations laid down in the SPS Agreement. and that it develop concrete options in ascertaining how to address these concerns. the committee has adopted guidelines to further the practical implementation of the Article 5. This is closely tied to the role of the committee in regularly reviewing the operation and implementation of the agreement in the light of Member states’ experiences. WT/ DS291. and upon the recommended notiﬁcation procedures highlighted above. G/SPS/19/Rev.117 in recognition of the difﬁculties which Members have experienced in the practical application of this concept. the committee has issued and updated recommended notiﬁcation procedures. These are essentially procedural in nature.113 As noted previously.110 The committee has adopted ﬁve instruments elaborating upon obligations laid down in the SPS Agreement. supra note 63. it extends beyond this. Finally. is proactive in eliciting information from Members.116 This builds upon proposals put forward by Canada and Egypt. Most recently WTO Doc. Even where the measure concerned does not lay down a periodic review/revision requirement.114 Thirdly. and decisions.115 Fourthly. the committee recently adopted guidelines on regionalization. 4 of the decision on special and differential treatment (WTO Doc. WTO Doc. See WTO Doc. this anyway seems to occur. This concerns Art. setting out the ‘typical administrative steps’ in recognizing an area as pest. First.
The committee has adopted a procedure for the conduct of this review (G/SPS/10) and has adopted two review reports to date (WTO Docs G/SPS/12 and G/SPS/36).112 Secondly. at para.or disease-free. The substance of these is discussed fully in Scott. 4 SPS. See EC – Measures Affecting the Approval and Marketing of Biotech Products. 84. See. and notably its secretariat.
the existing rights and obligations of Members. the committee then set out a multi-annual programme for further work on this subject.120 It includes a preamble. The elaboration of the notiﬁcation procedures is framed in the form of recommendations. G/SPS/19.119 by contrast. Even the committee’s ‘decisions’ are careful in the language they use. the softer ‘should’ (or sometimes ‘would’) is deployed. the decision lays down a ‘proposed procedure’ and is said to be without prejudice to the rights and obligations of special and differential treatment obligations under Article 10. With the exception of the equivalence decision. Otherwise. Having adopted the decision. in particular by mostly avoiding prescriptive rather than indicative forms. whereas the special and differential treatment decision was based on a proposal put forward by Member states. When it comes to the theme of consistency under Article 5. According to the decision. and that the accompanying comments are intended to facilitate understanding of the guidelines through the provision of merely illustrative examples and clariﬁcations. G/SPS/19/Rev. SPS. setting out its origins and functions. seek to accept equivalence. it is notable that not only is the committee’s intervention on this subject in the guise of guidelines. it is equivocal in the authority which it claims.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
The dynamic quality of the committee’s work may be seen with respect to the equivalence decision. The issue of the status of the committee’s decisions vis-à-vis Member States is an important one.5. in so far as the decision is addressed to Members. The guidelines are emphatic in asserting that they neither add to. the guidelines are clear that this revision does not create an obligation in law. nor detract from. nor do they provide any legal interpretation or modiﬁcation of the agreement. Even if it should transpire that the practical impact of this is profound. the committee’s language is noticeably deferential. providing repeated opportunities for consideration of information submitted by Members and relevant international organizations. by encouraging Members to notify regulations even where these are based on or conform to international standards. as well as for review and revision of the text. when requested. Still. looks somewhat different. This was said in an interview with a member of the secretariat merely to reﬂect the fact that it was drafted by the director of legal affairs. WTO Doc. This obligation is anyway binding because of its inclusion in the agreement. a recent revision to these goes beyond the terms of the SPS Agreement. equivalence remains a standing item on the committee’s agenda.
. Right at the outset it looks more like a legislative measure. The work programme having been completed. and shall respond in a timely manner to any request for recognition of equivalence.121 Exporting Members shall provide
WTO Doc.1. but these guidelines are also muted in the authority which they claim. Members shall. 2. The decision on transparency in special and differential treatment uses the prescriptive (shall) only in respect of the basic notiﬁcation obligation. at paras 1 and 3. Likewise. They are said to be intended to provide assistance to Members. and the premises underpinning its enactment. The equivalence decision. As was noted above. This led to the convening of regular informal meetings.
one panel has merely ‘conﬁrmed’ its interpretation of the concept of ‘signiﬁcant effect on trade’ by reference to the committee’s recommended notiﬁcation procedures. and only in the absence of them so doing will it infer the appropriate level of protection by reference to the measure itself: Australia – Salmon. It is more in keeping with the idea of equal treatment.600
EJIL 20 (2009). in practice the line between hard and soft law will be hard to draw.451). It remains to be seen whether the dispute settlement bodies will defer in any way to decisions of this kind. Beyond that.126 Also. in an SPS setting. supra note 64. the decision sets out what Members should do. 2. testing.125 They represent a soft law elaboration of hard law obligations. which outlines the basic equivalence obligation. given the open-ended and contested contours of the hard law obligations. To date. at para. speciﬁcally citing the relevant part of the committee decision (at para.’123 Where there is a disjuncture between the deemed and actual level of protection. on this reading. . been acknowledged as authoritative as a result of repeated and consistent practice in relation to them. a panel observed that its interpretation was consistent with a decision of the TBT Committee. the latter is to prevail in an equivalence determination. supra note 69. But. 422. at paras 199–207. 7.124 One way to think about the measures adopted by the committee is in the language of ‘hybridity’. and in EC – Protection of Trademarks and Geographical Indications for Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs (WT/ DS174). 575–614
appropriate science-based and technical information to support their claim to equivalence. and other relevant procedures. 9. The committee’s position seems to represent common-sense and to have much to commend it. and ﬂeshes out the concept of objectivity by reference to scientiﬁc and technical information. Rivalry or Transformation’. Yet in one important respect the equivalence decision seems to be at odds with the text of Article 4. The decision on transparency
It should be recalled here that the AB has inferred an obligation for Members to identify the appropriate level of protection pursued by a measure. G/SPS/10/Rev. the panel looked to a recommendation adopted by the Anti-Dumping Committee in arriving at its conclusion. There are other examples in different spheres. Also. For example in EC – Anti-Dumping Duties on Malleable Cast Iron Tube or Pipe Fittings from Brazil (WT/DS219). at n. and shall provide reasonable access to the importing Member for inspection. supra note 63.
. at 166–167 for a fuller discussion. This is an empirical question. Whereas Article 4 evaluates equivalence by reference to a Member’s stated level of SPS protection. as they potentially contest the capacity of a measure to achieve its deemed or stated level of protection.122 the equivalence decision takes as its benchmark the level of protection actually achieved by the regulation in question. ‘New Governance and Legal Regulation: Complementarity. . ‘If an exporting Member demonstrates by way of an objective basis for comparison . to describe the measures as ‘soft’ is not necessarily to suggest that they are weak in their impact. equivalence emerges as an instrument of peer review between Members. WTO Doc. the importing Member should recognize both measures as equivalent. See Trubek and Trubek. The recommended transparency procedures have. that its measure has the same effect in achieving the objective as the importing Member’s measure. In its prescriptive vein. See Scott. 13 Columbia J European L (2007) 539. it is not clear that the decision goes much beyond Article 4. for example. Japan – Apples (Panel). The decision adds a temporal dimension not articulated in the agreement.
‘Governing the Global Economy Through Government Networks’. we have chosen the three which seem the most relevant to us: the literature on ‘transgovernmental networks’ associated most prominently with the work of Anne-Marie Slaughter.
4 The WTO and Contemporary Narratives of Global Governance
Having described the activities and operation of two quasi-administrative bodies in the WTO. ‘Global Government Networks. and serve also as tools for critical engagement. ‘The Real New World Order’. sensitizing us to the risks inherent in the governance practices we describe. Global Information Agencies. The Role of Law in International Politics (2000). It was explicitly offered as an alternative to two other dominant accounts – the traditional. 1997) 183. critical perspectives on technocratic global governance. and the ‘new medievalist’ school which primarily emphasized the decentring of the state as the central actor and authority in international politics. 2 Annual Rev L and Social Science (2006) 211. at a time when many felt that globalization was rendering existing understandings of global politics increasingly anachronistic. in M. Byers (ed. and others. and the rapidly growing body of work on ‘global administrative law’. Each of these three frameworks captures different aspects of governance in our two committees. There is more work to be done in assessing the impact that the committee’s pronouncements have on law and practice in the WTO. The idea of transgovernmental networks was introduced by Slaughter in the mid-1990s. at 183.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
in special and differential treatment perhaps less so.). and exposes different elements of their operational dynamics. They help to thicken our descriptive account of global governance in this setting. But our relationship with these three frameworks is not entirely passive. transnational government networks. state-centred. ‘liberal internationalist’ model which focussed on interstate politics as played out in international institutions and through treaty regimes. and to enrich the frameworks that they provide. Slaughter. 24 Michigan J Int’l L (2003) 1041.
A Transgovernmental Networks
The literature on transgovernmental networks127 is familiar enough by now to require only a brief recapitulation. From among the many accounts available to us. Slaughter and Zaring. ‘Networking goes International: An Update’.–Oct. See also Slaughter. We aim also to illustrate how an exploration of committee governance in the WTO can allow us to build upon these established theoretical accounts. Foreign Affairs (Sept. we wish in this section to explore the nature of the governance practices at work within these bodies by tentatively situating them within a range of contemporary narratives about the nature and dynamics of global economic governance. Slaughter.128 Drawing on
We use this term interchangeably with other terms used in the literature. and Disaggregated Democracy’. such as government networks.
‘International Law by Other Means: The Twilight Existence of International Financial Regulatory Organizations’. in International Administration’..
. or ‘task-speciﬁc’. at 569ff. See also Stewart.. Slaughter has helpfully distinguished three different types of network: government networks within international organizations. therefore. Hard and Soft. See Zaring. often professional regulators. More recently. Zaring. ‘Global Governance Networks’. though in that respect there is variation both between networks and across time. Their internal structure tends to be highly informal and ﬂexible. Zaring. 27 World Politics (1974) 39. not of a decentred state. e.g. Raustiala. Keohane and J. with a small permanent secretariat operating by consensus with few formal decision-making procedures. their deliberations and consultations are in secret. ‘Networks in International Economic Integration: Fragmented States and the Dilemma of Neo-Liberalism’. Keohane and Nye. Picciotto. at 317–319..S.g.134 To the
E. Nye (eds). Zaring. ‘The Environment and Trade: Environmental Cooperation in the (Partially) Disaggregated State: Lessons from the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America’. The last category. the concept of a transgovernmental network is a broad one. See. 68 L and Contemporary Problems (2005) 63. ‘Other Means’. at 301ff. Typically. Such networks are characterized by a number of distinctive features. according to Slaughter.129 Slaughter painted a picture of a world in which the state remained central. This was a vision. ‘Fragmented States and International Rules of Law’. and others. in the sense that they structure their activities and objectives around the perception of a common problem requiring cooperative effort to resolve. government networks with the frame of an Executive Agreement (such as the G-22). Nye. can be further subdivided into ‘agreements between regulatory agencies of two or more states’ and transgovernmental regulatory organizations. Picciotto. and in principle could cover a very broad range of different organizational forms. supra note 132. informal networks composed of substate actors. ‘Informal Procedure. but a disaggregated state.602
EJIL 20 (2009). R. ‘Constructing and Contesting Legitimacy and Accountability in Polycentric Regulatory Regimes’. Craik and DiMento.133 They are functional. As has been noted by others. and ‘spontaneous government networks’. 43 Virginia J Int’l L (2002–2003) 1.ac.132 They are composed of sub-state actors. Slaughter. ‘US Administrative Law: A Model for Global Administrative Law?’.. but state power was deployed in new ways – through ﬂexible. supra note 128. available at: http://eprints. In more recent work. ‘The Architecture of International Cooperation: Transgovernmental Networks and the Future of International Law’. at 571–580. 2 Regulation and Governance (2008) 137. at 65. Picciotto.O. 575–614
earlier work by Keohane. ‘Transgovernmental Relations and International Organizations’.130 Each of these three categories should themselves be distinguished from non-state supranational regulatory networks about which a large cognate literature also exists. Transnational Relations and World Politics (1972). 33 Texas Int’l LJ (1998) 281. working through and interpenetrated by a variety of transgovernmental networks of this type. 17 Northwestern J Int’l L and Bus (1996–1997) 1014. 5 Chicago J Int’l L (2005) 547.lancs. see also Picciotto.131 It is this last kind of network – the transgovernmental regulatory organization – which we will focus on here. at 19. at 1048ff.pdf. 8 Chicago J Int’l L (2008) 479.uk/232/1/ Reg_Networks_&_Glob_Gov. 6 Social and Legal Studies (1997) 259. supra note 132. ‘Informal Procedure’. working outside centralized state control. ‘Regulatory Networks and Global Governance’ (2006). at 488ff. Black.
if informal. at 551. and 584.g. Importantly. Finally. raising a number of different concerns about the growth of such
E. supra note 128. at 195–197. supra note 128. In many cases. That is to say. supra note 132. at 23–46.
. Zaring. Zaring. supra note 132. drafting and disseminating model laws. as Raustiala has noted. Other functions include facilitating cooperation between regulators in the context of extraterritorial enforcement of regulatory standards.. Slaughter introduced the concept of transgovernmental networks not only as a useful descriptive framework. it is precisely through such processes of information exchange and dissemination that regulators can build ‘shared normative expectations’. E. and exchange views on appropriate regulatory responses. Compliance with these standards is then closely monitored by the network itself – indeed. Slaughter. transgovernmental networks can also act as conduits for the provision of technical assistance and capacitybuilding. sets out a useful list of the various functions which government networks perform. supra note 132. they act as forums for discussion. typically from regulators in advanced industrialized countries to those in the developed world. at 580–585. and promulgating ‘best practice’ guidelines for regulators: see Slaughter. collecting and disseminating statistical and other technical information. and so on. links with other networks and organizations of a similar kind. acting as a forum for the exchange information and views and the generation of perceptions of common problems. ‘The Real New World Order’. these networks facilitate cooperation between regulators as regards the enforcement of national laws. publishing material on ‘best regulatory practice’. helping to disseminate particular regulatory ideas and practices through subtle processes of socialization. and how do they work? At one end of the spectrum. these processes of information exchange occur in the context of an orientation towards regulatory harmonization. and create consensus around common regulatory standards. ‘The Real New World Order’. ‘Informal Procedure. This may often include the collection and dissemination of research or statistical and other technical information to assist regulators in dealing with problems identiﬁed. these networks form strong. but also in a laudatory fashion as a model for future forms of international cooperation. such mechanisms are highly effective.. including standard-setting. In addition to the promulgation of regulatory standards.135 What do these networks do. they often come to adopt a proselytizing role. drafting model laws.137 Others have taken a different view.136 Originally. ‘Informal Procedure’.g. at 190–196. share experience in dealing with those problems. Very often. helping regulators to deﬁne common problems and raise awareness of them. This can include the provision of advice. supra note 132. 572. facilitating regulatory harmonization through consensus. monitoring compliance with and implementation of standards. they do so through ‘soft’ mechanisms – non-binding voluntary guidelines supplemented by persuasion. aiding in the provision of technical advice and assistance. ‘Other Means’.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
extent that these networks seek to promulgate and enforce particular standards or rules of behaviour. embedding themselves in broader webs of interpersonal connections and sites of governance. Raustiala. and so on. Zaring. conducting research. at 295–301. supervision. and interpersonal contacts.
140 But there is more to the story than this.141 We noted also the way that the committee’s speciﬁc
Concerns have been expressed by those who worry about the potential sidelining of existing international institutions (e. Slaughter. WTO committees represent one kind of social space in which this community is sustained. The WTO’s committee system seems not simply or solely to be helping to maintain the kind of governmental network which has been central to the operation of the GATT system since its inception. we saw that the SPS committee has helped to provide a forum for food safety regulators to meet on a reasonably regular basis. a sense of common purpose. at n.. 575–614
networks. at 597ff. Zaring. e. the processes of informal norm elaboration which occur in these committees represent key mechanisms for the creation and maintenance of normative consensus across signiﬁcant parts of the trade community. See generally. Porter et al. can be understood as a process which helps to solidify among a ‘services community’ a common understanding of existing challenges. broadly shared normative commitments. supra note 131. at 506 and 509. ‘Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation and the Problem of Democracy’. we wish to put these concerns to one side and consider only how accurately this descriptive framework captures the kind of governance practices we set out in the case studies set out earlier.g. Equity. ‘The Rule of Lawyers and the Ethos of Diplomats: Reﬂections on the Internal and External Legitimacy of WTO Dispute Settlement’. Craik and DiMento. ‘Other Means’. at 302.
. arguing for an ‘international law of administrative procedure’. a ‘conduit for ongoing ﬂexible relationships’. in Zaring’s phrase. for example..A. Howse. ‘Global Government Networks’. Similarly. Legitimacy: The Multilateral Trading System at the Millenium (2001). See supra note 46. at 70–89). Bermann et al. about the legitimacy of networks of this kind (see. ultimately leading to a degree of normative convergence amongst delegates. also at 25.604
EJIL 20 (2009).138 For the moment. ’Other Means’. ‘Regulatory Networks’. and its shared ideas are created and disseminated. We gave examples earlier of controversial normative issues raised by the ambiguity of WTO legal texts – such as the treatment of spectrum management measures under the GATS – which were the subject of discussion within the Council for Trade in Services. supra note 128. supra note 132. in G. supra note 132. For example.. supra note 132. a common way of describing problems and of quantifying their magnitude. and common ways of deﬁning and analysing problems. as well as a common framework through which to determine one’s national interest in relation to those problems. Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation (2000). Efﬁciency. Raustiala. Weiler. 14 and accompanying text. supra note 132. Picciotto. It has been.g. Zaring.. and discuss common problems. exchange information. (eds). It is helpful to begin with the distinction just drawn between ‘transgovernmental regulatory organizations’ and more traditional ‘government networks within international organizations’.g. supra note 132. ‘Informal Procedure’. supra note 129). It is of course quite uncontroversial that the GATT/WTO system has helped to create a governmental network of the second kind – a relatively close-knit community of trade negotiators and governmental ofﬁcials with a deﬁned ‘ethos’. among many others). (eds). in R.. at 330.B.g. Zaring. and about their tendency to re-enforce a general trend towards technocratic governance (e. The Information Exchange programme conducted in the Council for Trade in Services.139 From this perspective. at 334. Our case studies provide interesting examples of the ways in which activities more often associated with newer forms of transgovernmental regulatory networks have begun to emerge in and around the international trade regime. e. Raustiala.
there are some echoes of the kinds of activities which are the focus of attention in the transgovernmental network literature. Even here. although not coordinated through the Committees described above. facilitated the provision of problem-oriented technical advice and assistance from experienced regulators to those wishing to establish new regulatory agencies.g. we also saw the way that the international trade regime can actively support and encourage ongoing standard-setting efforts within transgovernmental networks. both of these provisions have helped to provide the impetus for a variety of mechanisms of informal cooperation and information exchange through the work of committees. there are clearly occasions on which these committees act as conduits for the importation of policy ideas and forms of analysis from these networks to the trade community – another element. 30 Accounting.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
complaints procedure has. at 87. Our work therefore serves to
Raustiala. our case studies offer interesting insights into the different kinds of links which can develop between international institutions such as the WTO and existing transgovernmental regulatory networks. The operation of the SPS committee is more formalized than many transgovernmental networks. Ibid. however. of a transgovernmental network’s mechanism for the broad dissemination of common regulatory ideas and practices. the analogy with transnational regulatory networks is less strong. as the experience of Codex has taught us. e. at 84–88. which performs a broadly similar function in respect of the International Federation of Accountants and the IASC. particularly in the developing world. First. interactions between formal regimes and networks can to some extent transform the former. as the direct participation of regulators in the work of these committees is at present not as signiﬁcant. as our case studies illustrate. For an interesting discussion see. and the different ways in which they can inﬂuence one another’s work. The practice of the Committee on Trade in Financial Services of inviting domestic regulators to report on recent experiences.143 Furthermore. They suggest at least two different models of such interaction. which can be understood as a form of quasi-delegation of normative authority to Codex (among other organizations). and subjecting this report to discussion and peer review.. supra note 132. but rather as helping to foster and encourage the creation of such networks – even if unevenly and contingently – so that new networks of this kind can spring up in the shadow of treaty regimes. in other words. Our case studies. the WTO’s emerging work on technical assistance and capacity-building in services resonates strongly with similar work being carried out through transgovernmental networks.144 As described above. but its mode of operation is still characterized by the ﬂexibility and adaptability of governmental networks. In the services context. and bring a measure of transparency and greater participation to its operation. On the services side. this relationship can at least in some cases help to shine a spotlight on the network itself. In this model. on occasions.142 Similarly. Arnold. may be one example. so that they take on some characteristics of networks as sites of learning and socialization. The paradigmatic case is of course Article 3 of the SPS agreement. then.
. Orgs and Society (2005) 299. provide tentative support for Raustiala’s proposition that formal treaty regimes need not be understood as alternatives to transgovernmental networks. ‘Disciplining Domestic Regulation: the World Trade Organization and the Market for Professional Services’. Secondly. Interestingly.. the equivalent is Article VIII of the Accountancy Disciplines.
37 NYU J Int’l L and Politics (2005) 763. where legitimacy concerns register at least as strongly. and Stewart. and identiﬁes the different dynamics of such interaction. With their informal processes and often secret deliberations. Who participates in the activities of these committees? What kinds of accountability mechanisms are in place? To what extent does this ‘hidden world’ of WTO governance parallel the shadowy world of transgovernmental networks? These are signiﬁcant questions. 68 L and Contemporary Problems (2006) 15. we will argue that WTO committees may constitute a means of at least partially addressing legitimacy concerns. It is important. See Black. 2 Regulation and Governance (2008) 137. at 17. This concept is deﬁned in the following terms:
These developments lead us to deﬁne global administrative law as comprising the mechanisms. 37 NYU Int’l L and Politics (2005) 695. ‘The Accountability of Government Networks’. Cohen and Sabel. then legitimacy questions also loom large for the WTO. But in this section we want to take a different path. participation. and legality. in our view. There is of course a lively debate about the legitimacy of the WTO in general. actors who can no longer always be viewed as accountable to governments or parliaments back home.146 If it is true that the activity of some WTO committees resembles that of transgovernmental networks in important ways. arising as a result of the decision-making autonomy of private and public actors. that the same kind of work be done in relation to WTO committees. See Kingsbury.
EJIL 20 (2009). reasoned decision. and a number of proposals exist to develop additional mechanisms to improve accountability within this system as a whole. 8 Indiana J of Global Legal Studies (2001) 347. and we want to register their importance and relevance for studies of non-judicial governance in the WTO. while celebrated by some. supra note 132. Our argument in this section may be most usefully framed in the now familiar language of global administrative law. We see processes occurring in these committees which provide at least the promise of enhanced accountability. ‘The Global Regulatory Challenge to US Administrative Law’. ‘Global Democracy?’. practices. Slaughter. transgovernmental networks seem to bypass the accountability mechanisms which have been developed both domestically and (to some extent) in more traditional international institutions. and by providing effective review of the rules and decisions they make. ‘The Emergence of Global Administrative Law’. has been accompanied by serious concerns about their legitimacy. that promote or otherwise affect the accountability of global administrative bodies.145
B Legitimacy and Global Administrative Law
We noted above that the rise of transgovernmental networks. principles. Our focus here is on the SPS Committee. ‘Constructing and Contesting Legitimacy and Accountability in Polycentric Regulatory Regimes’. in particular by ensuring that they meet adequate standards of transparency.147
Raustiala. The developments described by Slaughter and others therefore raise squarely one of the principal challenges of global governance. Here. Stewart. Krisch. 575–614
reinforce the calls made elsewhere for further research which maps the different ways in which international institutions and transgovernmental networks interact. and supporting social understandings.
Ibid. which provides an opportunity for states to raise speciﬁc trade concerns. ‘Global Regulation. at 21. Ibid.148 Crucially. at 40. The founders of global administrative law provide a tentative list of its components. at 37–42. Jus Gentium and Inter-Public Law’ (two papers).149 They are characterized as ‘distributed administrations’ when they take decisions with transnational effects and are included within the reach of global administrative law.154 But while the WTO has featured prominently in discussions about global administrative law. such that standards of behaviour and procedures not formally codiﬁed as rules. at 16. which provides for quasijudicial review. participation. available at: www1. international organizations and transgovernmental networks among them.. The committee establishes processes which aim to enhance the accountability of Member states. which has been the focus for attention in this and so many other respects.edu/kingsburyb/fall06/globalization/papers/Kingsbury. and the possibility for independent review. Ibid. at 9. 68 L and Contemporary Problems (2006) 109.150 The founders of global administrative law acknowledge that uncertainty remains when it comes to identifying the norms which make up this body of law and in deﬁning their status. Procedural requirements are prominent. this process is ﬁrmly
Ibid. it is the dispute settlement system. and see also Kingsbury.151 Certain substantive standards. including transparency.pdf. where domestic bodies take decisions on issues of foreign or global concern’. reasoned decision-making. which may come to count as global administrative law.
. the concept of what is to count as a global body is broadly drawn.. The SPS Committee may be viewed as an engine for the generation of global administrative law and as an agent for its enforcement.NewJusGentiumandInterPublicI1. The content of global administrative law is not only informed by rules.. The Shrimp/Turtle case is United States – Export Prohibition in Shrimp and Certain Shrimp Products. but is shaped also by procedures and practice. are also included on this list.. for our purpose. WT/DS56/AB/R.nyu. By surveying the procedures and practices of the many actors which occupy global administrative space.152 The WTO is sometimes viewed as an engine of global administrative law.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
Global administrative law is concerned with the accountability of global bodies.law. at 17.153 and indeed the famous Shrimp/Turtle decision is treated as almost canonical in this respect. Cassese. It can include even ‘domestic regulatory agencies. Our task here is to turn away from the dispute settlement system and to illustrate how WTO committees lend themselves to analysis in the language of global administrative law. One thing though seems clear. While not codiﬁed in law.. Ibid. For a discussion see S. ‘Global Standards for National Administrative Procedure’. This is most clearly apparent in the operation of its complaints procedure. Ibid.. it becomes possible to spot commonalities in approach. proportionality and means/end rationality among them.
It invites its ‘sister organizations’ such as Codex to attend its sessions and has established a procedure to monitor processes of international harmonization. and seeking to enhance opportunities for the participation by developing country representatives. the relevant text is skeletal in its demands. occupying global administrative space. Perhaps more importantly. ‘Authority and Legitimacy in Global Governance: Deliberation. Institutional Differentiation and the Codex Alimentarius’. It is the committee which has adopted its own working procedures. 71. There can be little doubt that the SPS Committee has played an important role in fuelling concerns about the (limited) participation of developing countries in Codex. G/SPS/R/37/Rev. supra note 63. It is quite often the case that interactions in the committee induce Members to adjust their regulatory demands. This case study also lends some support to the proposition that improved accountability can lead to substantive change. at para. II. The complaints procedure reﬂects a participation model of accountability. It does so also in relation to international organizations occupying the same policy sphere. and to do so with a view to mitigating adverse external effects. the committee represents an important case study.156 It is not only in relation to Member states that the SPS Committee can be viewed as enforcing global administrative law.155 The SPS Committee takes the question of participation seriously. and in adding impetus to efforts to achieve reform. The committee is largely a creature of its own making.
. where ‘those affected [Member states] hold power-wielders [other Member states] accountable directly through participation’. and is subject to its own internally-generated body of global administrative law. the SPS Committee is itself a global administrative body. The SPS Committee reveals
Grant and Keohane. and require that regulating Member states explain and justify their decisions in the light of these. These activities of the committee both serve to render visible the transboundary effects of ‘domestic’ regulation. at 32. and the instantiation of a reason-giving requirement. and it has established procedures for reviewing the operation and implementation of the agreement. analysis of the SPS Committee may contribute to our understanding of global administrative law. e. attesting to the emergence of norms and procedures which aim to promote accountability in global governance. WTO Doc.g.608
EJIL 20 (2009).. monitoring involvement. and WTO Doc. 99 Am Political Science Review (2005) 29. The activities of this committee are suggestive of a missing dimension. ‘Accountability and Abuses of World Power in Politics’. For a fuller discussion see Scott. chs 7 and 8. While established by the SPS Agreement.157 In addition. one which could be important in determining the ability of this framework to respond to legitimacy concerns. See also Livermore. See. 81 NYU L Rev (2006) 766. It is clear even from this brief account that many of the activities of the SPS Committee can be convincingly captured by the language of global administrative law. It may be thought to represent an institutional expression of the transparency principle. 575–614
entrenched in the day-to-day practice of the committee. G/SPS/36 (2nd Review Report). For scholars committed to this perspective.
The point here is to suggest that this normative dimension needs to be built into the framework itself. The point here is that global administrative law does not operate in a normative vacuum. Thus. to say with approval that global administrative law operates in favour of enhanced accountability is to say that it operates in favour of those rules. and reasoned decision-making. The committee revisits its own procedures and decisions on a regular basis. Perhaps the strongest argument in favour of the incorporation of a reﬂexivity norm is the danger that. Reﬂexivity emerges.
. For a nice introduction. Consistent with the idea that the content of global administrative law is to be at least as much determined by practice as it is by rules. it often does so by reference to established rules. or by comparison with international standards. global administrative law may seem complacent in the face of established power. In the SPS Committee. without it. (1998) 267. as a key feature of the committee’s approach. This is reﬂected in the iterative nature of its work. 103 Columbia L Rev (2003) 384. principles. principles. and proportionality operates within the framework of categories of costs and beneﬁts which tend to be settled in advance. and which ties this concept to the literature on democratic experimentalism.
There is a large literature on ‘reﬂexive law’. principles. see Dorf. but also in relation to the rules. While it seeks to promote enhanced accountability. by reﬂecting on their appropriateness in the light of on-going evaluation and experience. 17 EJIL (2006) 1. and as somewhat oblivious to the consequences or fairness of these. signalling that one key function of global administrative law is to generate information about the impact and implications of these benchmarks.158 It is characterized by a critical self-awareness about its own role and operation and about the agreement which it administers. for example. In fairness to the founders of global administrative law. they are explicitly concerned to encourage evaluation of its consequences: see Krisch and Kingsbury. Similarly judicial review proceeds on the basis of established rules and principles. along with transparency. It is our view that there are strong arguments in favour of endorsing reﬂexivity as a component of global administrative law. including information about their costs and distributive consequences. This concept is being used here to capture the idea that institutions can play a role in shaping the content of norms over time. and standards which form the benchmarks for accountability. ‘The Domain of Reﬂexive Law’. contestation.159 The introduction of a reﬂexivity could change this. There is consequently a danger that global administrative law will be passive in relation to the underlying benchmarks for accountability which it serves. Member states are called upon to justify their decisions by reference to the science-based standards laid down in the SPS Agreement. or standards. and standards which are already entrenched in the relevant regime. reviewing a book which offers a philosophical as well as legal account. ‘Introduction: Global Governance and Global Administrative Law in the International Order’. where they speak of the ‘normative potential and problems’ of global administrative law (at 5). there are clear similarities between the idea of reﬂexive law and the idea of democratic experimentalism which he and Charles Sabel developed. See Dorf and Sabel. not just in relation to the norms which make up global administrative law. As Dorf notes. it takes shape in settings which are already populated by precepts and premises which reﬂect particular values and distributive outcomes. with a view to amending and improving them in the light of lessons learned.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
an approach to governance which is strongly reﬂexive. this commitment to reﬂexivity begs the question whether the reﬂexive approach of this committee might not be suggestive of a new candidate norm. ‘A Constitution of Democratic Experimentalism’ 98 Columbia L Rev.
when viewed across the board. The WTO Agreement also acknowledges the need for positive efforts to ensure that developing countries secure a share in the growth of international trade which is commensurate with their economic development needs. and the hollowing out of the traditional political processes we normally associate with international institutions. This agreement is open-ended and its consequences are difﬁcult to anticipate in advance. the WTO’s objectives are broad. and to the vital importance of maintaining an institutional viewpoint which is overarching rather than discrete. WTO committees. or in relation to a particular agreement (meso). Koskenniemi. by contrast to the dispute settlement system. which also provides a useful framework for interpreting our case studies.. the concept of reﬂexivity may equally shed light on the limitations inherent in the current system. After all.
C Managerialism and the Politics of Expertise
There is a third important line of thinking on global governance. It is based on a story of the rise of managerialism in international politics – the colonization of international politics by professional experts and their technical discourses. the Subsidies Agreement. and the GATT are all likewise implicated in efforts to achieve this goal. Koskenniemi. to liberalize trade in agricultural products. is seen to be in urgent need of reform. The Agriculture Agreement.
.g. While the activities of the SPS Committee illustrate the value of a reﬂexive approach. has described in some detail the process of ‘deformalization’160 which he sees
E. for example. but it could serve also to facilitate resistance to established norms. The SPS Agreement is just one part of the WTO package-deal and one instrument which aims. among other things. it cannot be expected to look in a more systematic way at the overall consequences of liberalization of agricultural markets. going well beyond trade liberalization to encompass sustainable development for example. not only in relation to a particular Member state’s regulation (micro). Thus. This is necessary to guard against the danger that a positive assessment at any one level may operate to enhance support for a regime which. but also to the interaction between committees. at 9ff. but also in relation to the trade regime as a whole (macro). While the SPS Committee can make an important contribution to understanding the real world impact of this agreement. ‘The Fate of Public International Law’. This realization hints at the very important institutional implications which could be associated with endorsement of a reﬂexivity norm in global administrative law. 575–614
Not only might such information provide impetus for reform of the underlying legal framework (the SPS or TRIPS Agreement for example). As such it is indispensable that any reﬂexivity norm operate at different levels of analysis. while the SPS Committee may examine the consequences of this agreement and the distribution of beneﬁts and costs which ﬂow from it. 70 MLR (2007) 1. are capable of providing mechanisms to assess the overall performance of the WTO by reference to both its overarching and speciﬁc goals. It could speak not only to the mode of functioning of a particular committee. The information collected might highlight the failure of an agreement or rule to achieve its stated objectives. it cannot offer a comprehensive account when acting alone.610
EJIL 20 (2009). The SPS Committee is charged with administering the SPS Agreement.
161 In this world. at 13ff.165 This story tends to be associated with a deep scepticism about the desirability of the entrenchment of expert networks. the politics of such networks. 27 Sydney J Int’l L (2005) 5. expert-oriented forms of governance. or ‘problem-oriented’. Moreover. Kennedy. Ibid. at 1037.164 and works primarily through persuasion and the deployment of information and knowledge via particular cultures of rationality.163 The result is a movement towards technocratic. At heart. The collectives described in this literature are epistemic in nature. supra note 129.
. Ibid. are in the knowledge that they create. by which international law comes to be understood solely as ‘an instrument for particular values. 4 European J Legal Studies (2007) 1. Managerialism and the Ethos of Legal Education’. and deploy. ‘a managerial mindset’162 takes over. Koskenniemi. and tend to take as given particular ways of understanding common problems.167 There are concerns about the ways in which expert rule mystiﬁes and disguises political and distributional choices. ‘The Politics of the Invisible College: International Governance and the Politics of Expertise’. ‘Constitutionalism. supra note 132. interests. Zaring. These networks tend to socialize members into a common framework of norms through processes of professionalization. ‘Networks in International Economic Integration’. 8 Theoretical Inquiries in Law (2007) 9. ‘Regulatory Networks’. disseminate. at 13. available at www. containing ‘only the most marginal opportunities for engaged political contestation’.166 The growth of these networks is associated with a ‘sort of technical rule-making in which politics are theoretically downplayed and expertise is valued’.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
at work throughout international law and international institutions. Kennedy writes. Picciotto. as well as a common professional training and identity. ‘Constitutionalism as a Mindset: Reﬂections on Kantian Themes about International Law and Globalisation’. in the sense that participants see their role as the performance of limited well-deﬁned tasks. and ‘struggles over global governance are to a great extent … fought through the debates waged within and between various scientiﬁc and professional disciplines and their univeralising discourses’. overt political contest is therefore marginalized in favour of ‘cooperation by experts’.htm. at 317.. and ‘the law retreats solely to the provision of procedures or broadly formulated directives to experts and decisionmakers for the purpose of administering international problems by means of functionally effective solutions’.ejls. Power is exercised ‘on the basis of professional or scientiﬁc techniques’. through the transnational consolidation of global professional cultures and transnational networks of expertise common to speciﬁc functional issue areas. for example. In this mode of governance. supra note 129. at 6. Picciotto.169 and scepticism about the quality of decision-making which is produced through appeals to the
Koskenniemi. ‘Other Means’.g. ‘Challenging Expert Rule: The Politics of Global Governance’. E. as well as their primary modes of inﬂuence. they are expert communities held together by shared bodies of knowledge and ways of knowing and analysing the world. and in the shared vocabularies which structure their thought and action. They operate within a mode of governance which is functional. Kennedy. preferences’.168 worries about the way the turn to managerialism undermines norms of participation and accountability.eu/1/3UK. 5 European Human Rights L Rev (2001) 463. of a world ‘increasingly governed by experts’.
As a result. but on the spaces in which the ‘background norms’ of international economic governance are produced in less formal ways. and to provide interpretation of them for negotiators and policy-makers. lawyers. For example. and evolution of the forms of knowledge which structure the deployment of political power in international life? These questions resonate particularly strongly with our study of the services committees. much work in this line is oriented precisely towards reopening space for politics within domains of apparently technical decision-making. Moreover. 575–614
false universalities of particular forms of rational knowledge. into existing networks of knowledge dissemination. Furthermore.612
EJIL 20 (2009).170 Our paper follows the lead of this literature in focusing attention not on the ‘foreground’ of negotiations and judicial decision-making. We have shown above that the operation of these committees has helped to shape the role of expert communities in the governance of services trade in a variety of ways. In addition. on the economic and other consequences of liberalization of trade in services. the work of Kennedy. In this sense the activity of the committees provides additional venues
Kennedy. Interactions within and around the trade regime can therefore act as one important vector for the transmission and dissemination of expert knowledge through the community of trade negotiators and more broadly to governmental trade policy-makers globally. econometricians. and existing barriers to trade in services. Koskenniemi and Picciotto prompts us to ask probing questions about these governance practices occurring within WTO committees. political scientists. how negotiations on trade in services have created a strong demand for new information – on existing trade ﬂows of services. and other activities described earlier demonstrate the increasing integration of the committee system. supra note 166. for example. Our hope is that others will follow in that same path and expand our map of these background spaces. mechanisms of peer review.
. We saw. maintenance. and the trade regime more generally. the services committees themselves act as venues in which government delegations are exposed to the knowledge produced in these expert communities. A new and relatively well-deﬁned community of ‘trade in services’ experts – economists. The information exchange programmes. Are they contributing to the entrenchment of a kind of ‘managerialism’ within the governance of international trade – or the opposite? To what extent and in what way do they affect the authority and influence of experts within global governance? What role do these practices play in the creation. workshops and seminars. and countering the self-presentation of expert decisions as ‘determined. and so on – has emerged to ﬁll this need for data on trade in services. the establishment of the GATS has helped to constitute a relatively new domain of expertise – expertise on ‘trade in services’. rather than “free”’. and come to share some of its precepts – whether through formal presentations by bodies such as the OECD and UNCTAD in the Services Council or through more informal interactions broadly facilitated through the work of these committees. at 27. we saw also the way in which delegates at times looked to expert communities for guidance as they discussed the interpretation of ambiguous legal norms and concepts.
While the focus upon science in the SPS Committee should alert us to the danger of managerialism.org/papers/04/040201. It serves to unsettle these claims by opening them up to new interpretations and to conﬂicting data. two mitigating observations need to be made. we might expect that the venues in which structures of knowledge are contested will be the same as those in which they are produced and disseminated. the vision of science which underpins the activities of this committee is one which sees science as contested. offering assistance to poorer countries in their bid to challenge scientiﬁc truth claims put forward by richer. with a view to exposing the external costs and burdens that will be imposed by regulation. supra note 63. more than any other which forms part of the WTO package-deal.The Hidden World of WTO Governance
and opportunities for various bodies of expert knowledge to mediate and inﬂuence the evolution of GATS norms and their interpretation. Secondly. Jean Monnet Working Paper 02/04. deliberations focussed upon the sufﬁciency of the scientiﬁc basis for regulation. but it seems that that work on the WTO’s committee system may be a useful launching point for detailed research into the deployment of expertise and professional cultures through global governance. ‘Risk Regulation under the WTO SPS Agreement: Science as an International Normative Yardstick’. and the ways in which these cultures and knowledge are transforming the modalities of international public power. it should be recalled that the SPS Committee facilitates the contestation of claims to scientiﬁc truth put forward by Member States.171 In this agreement. and Peel. this committee is charged with administering an agreement which accords a central role to science.jeanmonnetprogram. claims and arguments are frequently put in very different terms. regulating.
. It is easy to anticipate that the technocratic perspective might have some purchase in the SPS Committee too. We saw this in relation to the cholera example highlighted above. It is also the case that the committee serves to bring together scientiﬁc experts from different countries. ch. Among other things. esp. First. it is not at all the case that the only language spoken in the committee is the language of science. the language of law is the language of science. they frequently call science to their aid. We see this clearly in the aﬂatoxin and
For a full discussion see Scott. and upon the question whether there was sufﬁcient evidence of risk. such research will be necessary to uncover spaces for the contestation of managerialism on its own terms. Here. states. This is reﬂected in the work of the SPS Committee. 3. On the contrary. There is. providing occasions for experts to exchange information and to seek to resolve disagreements about regulatory right and wrong. as well as institutional mechanisms for the destabilization of expert knowledge and the repoliticization of their choices. After all.pdf. Many bilateral exchanges grow out of the formal committee sessions. of course. when Member States raise or respond to complaints about a given regulation. and as open to conﬂicting interpretations and change over time. When Members raise speciﬁc trade concerns their complaints are frequently framed in distributive terms. After all. The presence of the ‘sister organizations’ such as Codex is crucial in this respect. available at: www. Most obviously. Thus. much more work to be done to track the relationship between the work of WTO committees and the activity of particular expert communities.
science represents just one part of a deliberative process which is concerned not only with scientiﬁc evidence but with achieving a more rounded understanding of the global costs and consequences of SPS regulation. We also suggested that the activities of these committees contribute to the emergence of interpretive communities which serve to elaborate upon the open-ended norms laid down in the relevant agreements. Thus. and to exemplify this claim by reference to two speciﬁc sites of non-judicial governance in the WTO.614
EJIL 20 (2009). We use these narratives as a way of critically evaluating the developments we describe. review processes.
One exception is Wolfe. For example. We hope that the hidden world of WTO governance will not remain hidden for too long.
In academic literature the WTO is largely viewed as synonymous with its novel system for the settlement of disputes. and is at least suggestive of how this concept might be developed and improved. and the like. while our SPS case study attests to the emergence of global administrative law. comprising committees. 575–614
Mexican cantaloupe examples noted above. we then situate them in three contemporary narratives of global governance. we have pointed to the role that these committees play in generating and disseminating information. We have examined only two of these in this article. We have suggested that the two WTO committees under discussion here perform important functions which are largely hidden from view. In particular. We suggest also that our case studies provide material for those who seek to conﬁrm or challenge contemporary narratives about the nature and dynamics of global governance.172 We have sought to demonstrate in this article that there is more to the WTO than this. and as facilitators of technical assistance and regulatory learning.
. In the committee. our services case study provides tentative support for the idea that transgovernmental networks need not be viewed as alternatives to formal treaty regimes. ‘See You in Geneva? Legal (Mis) Representations of the Trading System’. 11 European J Int’l Relations (2005) 339. for example by assessing whether committee governance might amount to a form of managerialism which conceals and entrenches inequalities in political power. it also softens this to some degree. while the committee does endorse the technocratic (scientiﬁc) logic of the SPS Agreement. and in a manner which is not apparent without careful analysis of its day-to-day activities. Having surveyed the activities of these two sites of non-judicial governance in the WTO. and that studies of this kind can facilitate efforts to build upon these accounts. working parties. It is our view that the material that we have uncovered in relation to these two examples is sufﬁciently rich to justify further research in this domain. We stated at the outset that there are more than 35 sites of non-judicial governance in the WTO. By contrast to the dispute settlement bodies. the SPS Committee offers an opportunity for Members to step outside the scientiﬁc frame and to expand the range of arguments which they deploy in challenging trade-restrictive regulations adopted elsewhere.
More From This UserA Winkler Lo Specchio Introduzione Il Perduto IngegnorsrRrrr Eeeefrfffffty6y5656Trt 4544ewewwwwwwwere3765765565545555453rtsdrdfdpiante medicinaliLe Cinque Regole BiologicheMetafisica Io Sonowerere444432221010101010010101010101010101010101099999999999999999888888888888888888888888888777777777777777777777777777766666666666666666555555555555555555555555444444444444444333333333333333333333222222222222222222222222221111111111111111
1855 by golem902100 viewsEmbedDownloadRead on Scribd mobile: iPhone, iPad and Android.Copyright: Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)List price: $0.00Download as PDF, TXT or read online from ScribdFlag for inappropriate contentMore informationShow less
RelatedSaarc Project Mldcby Rohit TambeBusiness Law - WTO Presentationby Timothy Jevon LieanderCRNM - The Movement of Natural Personsby Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN), CARICOM SecretariatUntitledby eurolexMontevideoby wiggie27Hexner AJILby aliuksilaTerm Paperby Tareq Islam ShuvoUntitledby eurolexSpecial OTN Update (the Discussions of the 28th Meeting of COTED) 2009-10-17by Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN), CARICOM SecretariatUntitledby eurolexUNGA-ILC, Report on Unilateral Acts of Statesby locusstandi84Fifty Years of European Integration: a Remarkable Achievementby Manuel Alejandro Roa RomeroUntitledby eurolexcitzenshipby Ken AdamsUntitledby eurolexUntitledby eurolexUntitledby eurolexUntitledby eurolexTerm Paper GTS.pdfby manojpuruWorld Trade Organization Wikiby Bhuvanvignesh Vengurlekar2000 Asamblea Consejo Ed Seguridad Peacekeeping Operationsby Oscar MauricioUntitledby eurolexUntitledby eurolexWto by Nasir Iqbalby Nasir KhattakSovereigntyby Nazmul HossainUNEP_AGENDA2_RESO1by Princess Aileem PangandamanUntitledby eurolexUntitledby eurolexSimilar to 1855Saarc Project MldcBusiness Law - WTO PresentationCRNM - The Movement of Natural PersonsUntitledMontevideoHexner AJILTerm PaperUntitledSpecial OTN Update (the Discussions of the 28th Meeting of COTED) 2009-10-17UntitledUNGA-ILC, Report on Unilateral Acts of StatesFifty Years of European IntegrationUntitledcitzenshipUntitledUntitledUntitledUntitledTerm Paper GTS.pdfWorld Trade Organization Wiki2000 Asamblea Consejo Ed Seguridad Peacekeeping OperationsUntitledUntitledWto by Nasir IqbalSovereigntyUNEP_AGENDA2_RESO1UntitledUntitledICAO project111615 Evaluare Sec Gen Cons