1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress LegalLegal SidebarSidebar The “National Security Exception” and the World Trade Organization November 28, 2018 Introduction Recent international trade disputes between the United States and other Members of the World Trade Organizatio
2、n (WTO) have raised thorny questions about the relationship between national sovereignty and the multilateral rules-based trading system. In response to the Trump Administrations imposition of tariffs on U.S. imports of certain steel and aluminum products pursuant to authority provided in Section 23
3、2 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, several WTO Members have brought dispute settlement cases against the United States. The complaining parties, which include Canada, China, and the European Union, among others, have argued that the Section 232 measures, along with exemptions from the application
4、 of these measures for certain countries, are contrary to U.S. obligations in the WTO agreements. Many of these obligations are contained within various provisions in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the WTOs foundational agreement governing parties international trade in goods. In