By Tom Miles
"The WTO is clearly concerned at the announcement of
"A trade war is in no one’s interests. The WTO will bewatching the situation very closely.”
Trump struck a defiant tone on Friday, saying trade warswere good and easy to win, after his plan for 25 percent tariffson steel imports and 10 percent on aluminium triggered globalcriticism and a slide in world stock markets.
The plan was criticised in a WTO committee as early as Junelast year, and has caused an international outcry since Trumpconfirmed he intended to go ahead this week.
Azevedo, a former Brazilian trade negotiator, is normallyextremely diplomatic and refrains from any criticism of any ofthe WTO's 164 members, saying it is up to them to use the WTO'srules and dispute settlement system to work things out.
But Trump's tariffs plan is widely seen as being a potentialthreat to the system itself, since they are based on a claim to"national security", an area that is exempt from WTO rules.
WTO member countries have traditionally refrained fromciting national security, out of fear that it could provide aget-out clause from rules that have governed world trade foralmost a quarter of a century.
If the use of the national security exception spreads, otherpotential trade disputes where it could be used include a rowover China’s cyber security law and in the economic war between
A long-time taboo on national security looked like it hadbeen broken last year when
But the fear of Pandora's Box being opened was not realisedbecause
The risk of "national security" becoming a regular defenceis only one of several dangers facing the WTO, which hasstruggled to keep its rules up to date since it was created in1995.
It is also at risk from a
