Trade Talks Episode 81: National Security and Trade – The Fear of Imitation

Mona Pinchis-Paulsen (New York University) joins Soumaya Keynes and Chad Bown to discuss the historical origins and tradeoffs of justifying trade restrictions under the threat to national security. Sparked by an April 2019 WTO ruling involving combat between Russia and Ukraine, they explain the key fight within the original team of American negotiators that arose in the 1940s when setting up the International Trade Organization at the close of World War II. They discuss whether today’s Article XXI is 'self-judging' and 'non-justiciable,' they foreshadow conflicts around President Trump’s national security tariffs on steel and aluminum, and they describe implications for the future of the WTO.