COVID-19 PANDEMİSİ NEDENİYLE UYGULANAN İHRACAT KISITLAMALARININ DTÖ KURALLARI BAĞLAMINDA DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ (THE ASSESSMENT OF EXPORT RESTRICTIONS DUE TO COVID-19 PAMDEMIC IN THE CONTEXT OF WTO RULES) (original) (raw)
2021, Malatya Turgut Özal University Journal of Business and Management Sciences
The Covid-19 outbreak spread almost all over the world in the early 2020 and turned into a pandemic. The pandemic has resulted in a demand boom and inadequate supply for goods such as medical products, cleaning products and personal protective equipment. This has led states to prioritize their own national needs and resort to measures that limit export in quantity or prohibit it altogether in certain products mentioned. Export restrictions implemented one after another have brought their place within the rules of international trade law (World Trade Organization-WTO law) into the agenda. GATT Article XI.1 prohibits, as a rule, quantitative restrictions on both import and export. However, there are various provisions in GATT that allow escape from this prohibition. Article XI.2 gives a list that falls outside the scope of the general prohibition of quantity restrictions, and sub-paragraph XI.2 (a), which is exclusively for export, makes it possible to take temporary export-restrictive or prohibitive measures to prevent or mitigate ciritical shortages in food or other products essential to exporting country. Some provisions of Article XX on general exceptions and Article XXI on security exceptions also allow quantitative measures to be taken in export. In addition, there are some procedural requirements in WTO law regarding such measures. On the other hand, various debates and solution proposals have been brought forward regarding the inconveniences of export-restrictive or prohibitive measures on international trade.