1 October 2014 | CIL Seminar Series

Economic Sanctions and WTO Law

Introduction

States use economic sanctions as part of a policy tool kit to achieve foreign policy objectives against other States. Cuba, Iraq, Iran, South Africa and Myanmar have all been the subject of various sanctions regimes, with the imposition of economic sanctions against Russia in the context of the Ukraine conflict serving as the most recent example.

Although trade is often a component of economic sanctions, there is limited jurisprudence by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on States’ use of such sanctions. This lecture explored the WTO discipline with regard to economic sanctions and suggest ways to consider the legality of sanctions in general within the framework of the WTO trade regime.

About the Speaker

Mr. Alan Yanovich is Senior Counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Geneva. He advises foreign governments and multinational corporations on litigation of disputes before the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other international dispute-resolution bodies; on international business and policy issues; and on legislation, regulation and interagency policy formation. Mr. Yanovich has extensive experience on international trade and investment matters at the multilateral, regional and bilateral levels. He spent 12 years at the WTO Appellate Body, the WTO’s highest tribunal. As a counselor at the Appellate Body Secretariat, he provided advice on procedural and substantive issues to the members of the Appellate Body and was responsible for supervising all case management aspects of an appeal.

Mr. Yanovich’s duties at the WTO also included conducting specialized training activities on the WTO’s rules and dispute settlement procedures for government officials around the globe. Between 1997 and 2001, Mr. Yanovich was a legal advisor at the General Secretariat of the Andean Community, and, prior to that, he served as a commercial secretary at the Colombian Government Trade Bureau. Mr. Yanovich has engaged in numerous research activities relating to both the multilateral trading system and regional trade agreements. He worked closely with the WTO’s Economic Research Division in the drafting of the WTO’s premier publication, the World Trade Report, in 2010 (“Trade in Natural Resources”), 2011 (“Regionalism”), 2012 (“Non-Tariff Barriers”) and 2013 (“Factors Shaping the Future of Trade”).

Presentation

To download Mr Yanovich’s presentation in PDF format, click here.