A U.S. diplomat told the World Trade Organization in Geneva Friday that a recent ruling limiting the justification of tariffs on national security grounds was “seriously flawed” and should not be allowed to become the standard internationally. Trump administration has cited national security to justify its tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
The WTO ruled in April that tariffs based on national security had to involve an “emergency in international relations” relating to “the ‘hard core’ of war or armed conflict,” a standard that would appear to limit them to ongoing armed conflicts. The case involved a challenge by Ukraine to some Russian trade restrictions. The ruling was officially adopted Friday.
The U.S. diplomat, who was not named, told a panel of WTO adjudicators that the ruling was “unpersuasive” and “problematic for systemic reasons,” according to a Reuters report, which cited an anonymous official present at the meeting.
The U.S. diplomat said the organization should have accepted the argument that a country should be “self-judging” when its national security is threatened, a position that would prohibit any WTO challenge on national security grounds.
The Trump administration has justified its tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on the grounds that they are needed to maintain a strong domestic industry so it can in turn supply raw materials for the creation of military equipment such as tanks, boats, and planes. That would appear to fall well below the standard established by the WTO ruling, opening up the U.S. policy to international legal challenges.
The WTO case did not involve the U.S. but it was the first time the organization had ruled on such a matter. The administration has previously expressed concern over the potential precedent a ruling on national security and tariffs would set.
“A dispute involving essential security is political in nature and, therefore, beyond the proper authority and competency of the WTO to assess,” the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said in testimony to the organization last year regarding the Russia-Ukraine case, according to a document posted on the U.S. Trade Representative website.
A U.S. Trade Representative spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
