The existing WTO regime is mainly conceived through various agreements incorporating essential mandatory rules for the purposes of regulation of trade between its members. However, trade does sometimes raise issues which fall outside the WTO in the domain of other specialist regimes such as human rights and the environment, which also operate in the arena of public international law. More importantly, these instances leading to interaction of the WTO with other specialist regimes could result in conflict leading to fragmentation. It is of utmost importance, to recognise that such interaction poses challenges for the WTO in addressing such conflict through co-ordination with other regimes while upholding its unique purpose and function. Several commentators argue that the WIO's boundaries remain impermeable by disregarding other specialist regimes, such as human rights and the environment, operating in the arena of public international law. This thesis offers a different perspective by highlighting numerous instances in the form of decisions, practices and mechanisms within the WIO which bears evidence of its consideration of other specialist regimes. The thesis argues that co-ordination with other regimes in the form of waivers and subsequent interpretation reflects the process of accommodation of issues or interests advanced by other non-WTO regimes. This thesis focuses on co-ordinating initiatives both with regard to the source and manner in which they came into existence and also with regard to their effects. Furthermore, these instances of coordination also reveal how some provisions in the WTO Agreements have been used with intended and unintended consequences to address conflict, so permitting evolution of the WIO system. It is submitted here that the discussed instances of coordination indicate the possibilities which the WTO Agreements present to address and manage future conflict with other regimes. The purpose of this thesis is to inform the community of specialists and policy makers in the area of trade, human rights, health and environment about the possible ways in which adjustments can be made within WTO to address conflict.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:590294 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Rajput, Trisha |
| Publisher | University of Leeds |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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