Export Restrictions on Critical Minerals and Metals

Conventional wisdom on the insufficiency of existing WTO disciplines on export restrictions has triggered momentum on the issue. In this book, Ilaria Espa offers a comprehensive analysis of the scope and coverage of WTO disciplines on export restrictions in light of emerging case law. She investigates whether such rules still provide a sufficient, credible and effective framework capable of preventing abuses in the use of export restrictive measures on critical minerals and metals during a period of economic crisis and change in international trade patterns. Giving a broad overview of the export restrictions applied to these materials, Espa identifies distinctive features in the proliferation of export barriers and analyses the existing WTO rules to reveal their scope, gaps and inconsistencies. She goes on to present solutions based upon her findings with the aim of bringing more coherence and equity to WTO rules on the export side.Foreword Giorgio Sacerdoti; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; WTO reports; GATT panel reports; Introduction; Part I. Minerals and Metals Critical to the World Economy and the Recent Proliferation of Export Restrictions: 1. Evolving world trade patterns in critical minerals and metals; 2. The landscape of export restrictions on critical minerals and metals; 3. Economic effects and policy goals of mineral export restraints; Part II. Existing WTO Disciplines on Export Restrictions: 4. WTO disciplines on export duties; 5. WTO disciplines on export quantitative restrictions; 6. GATT general exceptions relevant and applicable to WTO-inconsistent export restrictions; Part III. Regulatory Prospects: 7. Understanding the multifaceted discourse on export restrictions in the WTO: a brief conceptual framework; 8. Export restrictions in the Doha Round negotiations; 9. The way forward; Appendix 1. Export taxes applied to critical minerals and metals (2008-14); Appendix 2. Export licensing schemes applied to critical minerals and metals (2008-14); Bibliography; Index.