978-0132718974 Chapter 7 Solution Manual Part 1

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Trade in Goods

I. Text Materials

History of Contemporary International Trade Law

International trade has grown dramatically in the past 60 years. In great measure, this is because

the world’s nations have cooperated in eliminating protectionist domestic legislation and in

promoting the free exchange of goods.

The several GATT treaties, the EU, the WTO, and many other international agreements and

organizations have resulted in a dramatic lowering of tariffs—each nation giving up a little in

order to get reciprocal reductions—and a tremendous increase in international trade.

Certain public interest and labor groups have complained that “free trade” ignores important

environmental and labor issues, with dire consequences for the environment and workers in

developing countries. Employee organizations in developed nations argue that free trade and

globalization have led to the loss of thousands of good jobs, as manufacturing plants are moved

and work is outsourced to lower-wage nations.

Nevertheless, despite the protests, it seems clear that globalization is here to stay.

Protectionism – The Great Depression of the 1930s in many ways was a direct consequence of

protectionism. Recovery from the Great Depression was U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt’s

main goal upon his election in 1932, and liberalization of international trade was at the heart of

his program for achieving that end.

During World War II, the protectionist sentiments of the 1930s were rejected as destructive, and

they were swept aside in a rush to arrange a comprehensive network of multilateral agreements to

settle the world’s political and economic problems.

The Bretton Woods System – The negotiators who met for the United Nations Monetary and

Financial Conference in Bretton Woods in July 1944 were determined to create a system that

would promote trade liberalization and multilateral economic cooperation. The Bretton Woods

System was meant to be an integrated undertaking by the international community to establish a

multilateral institutional framework of rules and obligations.

The Bretton Woods System was to have had at its core three major international organizations:

the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Bank for Reconstruction and

Development (IBRD or World Bank), and the ill-fated International Trade Organization (ITO).

The Articles of Agreement of the IMF were adopted at Bretton Woods and ratified in 1945.

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The 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade – GATT 1947 was a multilateral treaty that

set out the principles under which its contracting states, on the basis of “reciprocity and mutual

advantage,” were to negotiate “a substantial reduction in customs tariffs and other impediments to

trade.”

The main principles of GATT 1947 were as follows:

Trade discrimination was forbidden.

The only barriers that one contracting state could use to limit the importation of goods from

another contracting state were customs tariffs.

The trade regulations of contracting states had to be transparent.

Customs unions and free trade agreements between contracting states were regarded as

legitimate means for liberalizing trade.

GATT-contracting states were allowed to levy only certain charges on imported goods.

The legal framework established at Geneva in 1947 remained essentially unchanged until the

creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994.

Multilateral Trade Negotiations – To keep GATT 1947 up-to-date, the contracting parties

regularly participated in multilateral trade negotiations (informally called rounds).

Since one of the main purposes of the GATT agreement was to reduce tariffs, the first five rounds

were devoted almost exclusively to tariff reductions, while the last three completed rounds (the

Kennedy, Tokyo, and Uruguay Rounds) expanded their agendas to nontariff matters.

More comprehensive negotiating techniques were proposed and used for the first time in the

Kennedy Round (1964–1967). In addition to the negotiations on tariffs, the Kennedy Round dealt

with the problems of nonreciprocity for developing states and with nontariff obstacles.

The next multilateral trade negotiations, known as the Tokyo Round (1973–1979), were

characterized by an ambitious agenda and the participation of non-GATT states. The Tokyo

Round produced several special agreements (popularly known as codes) to regulate nontariff

matters as well as several sectoral agreements to promote trade in particular commodities.

The Uruguay Round – The Uruguay Round (1986–1994) brought about a major change in the

institutional structure of the GATT, replacing the informal GATT institution with a new

institution: the World Trade Organization.

The Uruguay Round Final Act is made up of three parts that together form a single whole. The

first part, the formal Final Act itself, is a one-page “umbrella” that introduces the other two parts.

The second part of the Final Act is made up of the WTO Agreement and its annexes, of which

there are two kinds: Multilateral Trade Agreements and Plurilateral Trade Agreements. The third

and final part comprises the ministerial declarations, decisions, and understandings.

The World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is meant to provide the “common institutional framework”

for the implementation of the agreements that came out of the Uruguay Round of MTNs.

Functions served by the WTO include:

to implement, administer, and carry out the WTO Agreement and its annexes,

Trade in Goods

to act as a forum for ongoing multilateral trade negotiations,

to serve as a tribunal for resolving disputes, and

to review the trade policies and practices of member states.

The WTO Agreement – The Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO

Agreement) has been described as a “mini-charter” because it is much less complex than the

ITO’s Havana Charter. The provisions of the WTO Agreement are exclusively institutional and

procedural. The Agreement establishes a legal framework to bring together the various trade pacts

that were negotiated under GATT 1947. The WTO is to be guided by the procedures, customary

practices, and decisions of the old GATT.

Membership of the WTO – In order to join the WTO, a nation must complete an “accession

agreement” which must be approved by all WTO members. The negotiations with the many

nations and various groupings within the WTO are lengthy and complex.

Cape Verde and the Ukraine joined the WTO in 2010, bringing its total membership to 153.

During 2011, the WTO approved the membership of Montenegro, Russia, Samoa, and Vanuatu.

The members of the WTO comprise both states and customs territories that conduct their own

trade policies. States that were members of GATT 1947 on January 1, 1995, along with the EU,

were eligible to become “original members” of the WTO. A state that did not qualify for

admission as an original member must negotiate entry into the WTO on terms to be agreed on

between it and the WTO and approved by the WTO Ministerial Conference by a two-thirds

majority of the member states of the WTO.

At the time a state becomes a member of the WTO, but only then, it may take advantage of

Article XIII of the WTO Agreement, entitled “Nonapplication of Multilateral Trade Agreements

between Particular Members.” A member may withdraw from the WTO six months after

notifying the director-general of its intention to do so.

Structure of the WTO – The WTO has five main organs: (1) a Ministerial Conference, (2) a

General Council that also functions as the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body and Trade Policy

Review Body, (3) a Council for Trade in Goods, (4) a Council for Trade in Services, and (5) a

Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

The composition of the Ministerial Conference and especially the General Council has been

criticized on the grounds that “mass management does not lend itself to operational efficiency or

serious policy discussion.”

In addition to the main organs of the WTO, there is also a secretariat headed by a director-general,

who is appointed by the Ministerial Conference. The staff of the GATT 1947 secretariat became

the staff of the WTO secretariat on the latter’s inauguration. The director-general of the WTO is

responsible for supervising the administrative functions of the WTO. The director-general has

little power over matters of policy, other than his/her ability to negotiate, mediate, and persuade.

Ministerial Conference

The Ministerial Conference generally meets at least every other year to oversee the operation of

the WTO. Five standing committees deal with (1) trade and development; (2)

Trade in Goods

balance-of-payments restrictions; (3) budget, finance, and administration; (4) trade and the

environment; and (5) regional agreements.

Since the tumultuous Ministerial Conference in Seattle in 1999, Ministerials have been held in

Doha, Qatar, in 2001; in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003; in Hong Kong in 2005; in Geneva in 2009;

and another in Geneva in 2011.

General Council

The General Council carries on the functions of the Ministerial Conference in the intervals

between the meetings of the Conference. The General Council convenes as appropriate to

function as the WTO Dispute Settlement Body and the WTO Trade Policy Review Body. The

Council for Trade in Goods, the Council for Trade in Services, and the Council for Trade-Related

Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights function under the guidance of the General Council to

oversee the implementation and administration of the three main WTO agreements. The General

Council is also responsible for making arrangements for “effective cooperation” with other

intergovernmental organizations.

Decision Making within the WTO – The WTO Agreement says that the WTO will “continue the

practice of decision making by consensus followed under the GATT 1947.” Consensus is the

making of a decision by general agreement and in the absence of any voiced objection.

If consensus cannot be reached, decisions are made by a simple majority vote. At meetings of the

Ministerial Conference and the General Council, each WTO member state has one vote, with the

EU having a number of votes equal to the number of its member states that are members of the

WTO.

Waivers – GATT 1947 was sometimes characterized as a system of loopholes held together by

waivers. The WTO agreements dramatically changed this.

With one exception, the waivers of obligations in existence under GATT 1947 terminated no later

than two years after the inauguration of the WTO.

The procedures for obtaining new or continuing waivers are more rigorous. Thus, an applying

member state must (1) describe the measures that it proposes to take, (2) specify the policy

objectives it seeks to obtain, and (3) explain why it cannot achieve those objectives without

violating its obligations under GATT 1994.

Waivers must be approved by the Ministerial Conference, which has up to 90 days to do so by

consensus. If a consensus cannot be reached in that period, waivers must then be approved by a

three-quarters majority of the members. Waivers are reviewed annually thereafter.

Any dispute that arises in connection with a waiver, whether or not the waiver is being carried out

in conformity with its terms and conditions, can be referred for settlement under the Dispute

Settlement Understanding.

Dispute Settlement – The Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of

Disputes (the Dispute Settlement Understanding, or DSU) carries forward and improves on the

dispute settlement procedures of GATT 1947. The DSU establishes a unified system for settling

disputes that arise under the WTO Agreement and its annexes.

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Trade Policy Review – Annex 3 of the WTO Agreement establishes a Trade Policy Review

Mechanism. The Trade Policy Review Board (TPRB) that is meant to be the WTO’s auditor or

watchdog. It is responsible for promoting “improved adherence” by all WTO member states to

the WTO Multilateral Trade Agreements and, for the member states that are signatories, the

Plurilateral Trade Agreements.

The TPRB (1) carries out periodic reviews of the trade policies and practices of all member states

and (2) prepares an annual overview of the international trading environment.

The 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

The current General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1994) is made up essentially of the

same set of rules as GATT 1947. The changes in the text of GATT 1994 amount mainly to

changes in terminology (e.g., member replaces contracting party and references to the

“contracting parties acting jointly” are taken to mean the WTO or its Ministerial Conference).

The significance of the two instruments being legally distinct is that (1) the WTO is not the “legal

successor” to the old GATT organization and (2) the member states of GATT 1994 owe no legal

obligations to the contracting parties of GATT 1947. Thus, the WTO is not bound to service

GATT 1947, nor is it bound by any obligations made by the previous GATT organization except

to the extent that it expressly assumes those responsibilities.

States that become member states of GATT 1994 without withdrawing from GATT 1947 will be

bound by two different sets of commitments involving two different lists of states. Similarly,

states that withdraw from GATT 1947 after becoming members of GATT 1994 will only continue

to have GATT obligations under GATT 1994.

Some of the decisions of the past GATT council were modified at the time GATT 1994 came into

force by a series of “Understandings” annexed to the new General Agreement.

Direct Effect – Some of the provisions of GATT 1994 are directly effective. That is, they may be

relied upon by private persons to challenge the actions of a member state. Those provisions that

prohibit a state from taking action contrary to the General Agreement are directly effective.

Those that require a contracting state to take some positive action may only be challenged by

individuals if the state adopts implementing legislation authorizing such a challenge.

Case 7-1: Finance Ministry v. Manifattura Lane Marz Otto, SpA

Facts: Italy imposed an “administrative services duty” on woolen goods that Manifattura Lane

Issue: Is GATT Article III(1)(b) directly effective?

Holding: Yes.

Law: (1) GATT Article III establishes the maximum amounts of tariffs that contracting states can

Trade in Goods

Explanation: The GATT is fully part of Italy’s legal system. Because Article III is a prohibition

Order: The duty charged MLM is illegal.

Nondiscrimination – The most fundamental principle of GATT is that international trade should

be conducted without discrimination. This principle is given concrete form in the

most-favored-nation (MFN) and national treatment rules.

The MFN Rule

Article I of GATT requires each member to apply its tariff rules equally to all other members. The

MFN rule does not apply to:

The use of measures to counter dumping and subsidization.

The creation of customs unions and free trade areas.

Restrictions that protect public health, safety, welfare, and national security.

GATT provides for a special exception in the case of developing states. In order both to promote

and protect the economies of developing states, GATT encourages the developed states not to

demand reciprocity from them in trade negotiation, and it authorizes developed member states to

adopt measures that give preferences to developing member states.

The contracting parties to GATT 1947 approved two preferential treatment schemes that are

carried forward into GATT 1994. One, the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), allows

developing countries to export all (or nearly all) of their products to a participating developed

country on a nonreciprocal basis. The other, the South-South Preferences (so called because most

developing nations are located in the Southern Hemisphere), lets developing countries exchange

tariff preferences among themselves without extending the same preferences to developed states.

The National Treatment Rule

The national treatment rule requires a country to treat products equally with its own domestic

products once they are inside its borders. Article III, paragraph 4, of GATT provides: The

products of the territory of any member state imported into the territory of any other member state

shall be accorded treatment no less favorable than that accorded to like products of national origin

in respect of all laws, regulations and requirements affecting their internal sale, offering for sale,

purchase, transportation, distribution, or use.

Article III, paragraph 2, sets out the same nondiscriminatory requirement with respect to internal

taxes.

Case 7-2: Japan—Taxes on Alcoholic Beverages

Facts: Japan imposed higher taxes on imported vodka than it did on “shochu,” a similar locally

Trade in Goods

Issues: (1) Should the “aim-and-effect” test be applied? (2) Are vodka and shochu like products?

(3) Is a “roughly constant” tax/price ratio sufficient to meet the requirement of Article III:2?

Holdings: (1) No. (2) Yes. (3) No.

Law: Article III:2 requires that WTO member states impose the same internal taxes on imported

Explanation: (1) The “aim-and effect” test, which is based on the goals set out in Article III:1,

Order: Japan should bring its alcoholic beverages tax into compliance with Article III:2.

Following exceptions apply to the application of the national treatment rule:

The maintenance of preferences existing at the time GATT 1947 came into effect.

Discrimination in the procurement of goods by government agencies for governmental

purposes only.

Discrimination in the payment of subsidies to domestic producers.

Discrimination in the screening of domestically produced cinematographic films.

Protection Only Through Tariffs – Each member state may protect its domestic industries only

through the use of tariffs. Quotas and other quantitative restrictions that block the function of the

price mechanism are forbidden by Article XI of GATT. To ensure that internal taxes are not

disguised as tariffs, Article II requires that tariffs be collected “at the time or point of

importation.”

The following exceptions apply to the principle of protection through tariffs:

The imposition of temporary export prohibitions or restrictions to prevent or relieve critical

shortages of foodstuffs or other essential products.

The use of import and export restrictions related to the application of standards or regulations

for classifying, grading, or marking commodities.

The use of quantitative restrictions on imports of agricultural and fisheries products to

stabilize national agricultural markets.

The use of quantitative restrictions to safeguard a state’s balance of payments.

The use of quantitative restrictions by a developing state to further its economic development.

GATT requires member states to work toward their “substantial reduction.” Tariff reductions are

negotiated among the member states and then recorded as Schedules of Concessions annexed to

GATT. A bound tariff rate represents the highest rate that a member state may set on an item

under the terms of GATT. Once such a rate is negotiated, the member state is required to extend it

to all other GATT members by the MFN rule.

Trade in Goods

Transparency – Transparency is the requirement that governments disclose to the public and

other governments the rules, regulations, and practices they follow in their domestic trade

systems. Complementing this principle is the requirement that member states must strive to

simplify their import and export formalities.

While negotiations were underway in Geneva in 1947 to set up the original GATT, discussions

were also being held in Western Europe to establish a customs union. The participants agreed to

take advantage of the accords that had been reached to establish a standardized system (or

nomenclature) for classifying goods for the purpose of imposing customs duties. In 1950, the

Convention on Nomenclature for the Classification of Goods in Customs Tariffs was signed, and

the Customs Cooperation Council (CCC), an international organization based in Brussels, was

established to administer it.

On January 1, 1989, the United States brought its tariff schedules into line with the CCC or

“Harmonized” system. The Harmonized System (HS) is made up of a schedule of about 900 tariff

headings, which are interpreted through explanatory notes and classification opinions published

and regularly updated by the CCC.

Regional Integration – GATT seeks to promote international trade through regional economic

integration. It accordingly encourages WTO member states to participate in free trade areas and

customs unions.

A free trade area consists of a group of states that have reduced or eliminated tariffs among

themselves but that maintain their own individual tariffs in dealing with other states. A customs

union involves a group of states that have reduced or eliminated tariffs among themselves and

have also established a common tariff for all other states.

WTO member states may participate in these regional groups only if the groups do not establish

higher duties or more restrictive commercial regulations with respect to other WTO countries.

The same prohibition also applies to interim agreements leading to the establishment of these

groups.

Any member state seeking to participate in a free trade area or customs union is required to

“promptly notify” the WTO of its intentions. The proposed agreement and a transition schedule

are then reviewed by WTO working parties to ensure that they comply with GATT Article XXIV.

The results of this review are reported to the WTO Ministerial Conference, which in turn

approves the proposal or makes recommendations for modification. Recommendations are

actually demands to make changes.

Once a free trade area or customs union is established, GATT rules apply to the area or union as a

whole and not to its constituent states. A customs union or free trade area operates as a regional

GATT, with its own tariff and nontariff codes.

Commodity Arrangements – Commodity arrangements are trade regulations meant to stabilize

the production and supply of basic or primary commodities through the intergovernmental

regulation of supply and demand.

Primary commodities are those derived by extraction or harvest and that require minimal

industrial processing before being used or consumed. The list commonly includes bananas,

Trade in Goods

bauxite, cocoa, coffee, copper, cotton and cotton yarns, hard fibers and their products, iron ore,

jute and its products, manganese, meat, phosphates, rubber, sugar, tea, tropical timber, tin, and

vegetable oils including olive oil and oil seeds.

GATT allows member states to participate in commodity agreements, provided that they involve

both exporting and importing countries and are submitted to the WTO for approval. In developing

and overseeing commodity agreements in the past, the GATT 1947 organization cooperated with

both the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the UN Conference on Trade and

Development (UNCTAD). The most active of the three in promoting commodity agreements was

UNCTAD.

UNCTAD adopted an Integrated Program for Commodities (IPC), which called for the early

conclusion of commodity agreements covering 10 core commodities—cocoa, coffee, copper,

cotton, hard fibers, jute, rubber, sugar, tea, and tin—and for the establishment of a $6 billion

internationally financed Common Fund to underwrite the costs of maintaining the buffer stocks

commonly used in stabilizing the supply of the core commodities.

Once established, the organizations created by commodity agreements operate independently of

the WTO, ECOSOC, or UNCTAD.

Escape Clause – Article XIX of GATT 1994—entitled “Emergency Action on Imports of

Particular Products”—is an escape clause or safety valve that allows a member state to avoid,

temporarily, its GATT obligations when there is a surge in the number of imports coming from

other member states.

The injured state can impose emergency restrictive trade measures known as safeguards. A state

making use of the escape clause must notify the WTO and consult with the affected exporting

state to arrange for compensation. If a notifying country fails to negotiate, the injured exporting

countries are authorized to retaliate—that is, withhold “substantially equivalent concessions” in

order to restore the previous balance of trade between the two states.

The procedures for engaging in consultations and for withholding concessions are incorporated in

a Safeguards Agreement.

Exceptions – The drafters of GATT realized that states sometimes need to take certain measures

as a matter of public policy that conflict with GATT’s general goal of liberalizing trade. Article

XX sets out “General Exceptions” and Article XXI “Security Exceptions.”

The general exceptions excuse a member state from complying with its GATT obligations so long

as this is not done as “a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination” or as “a disguised

restriction on international trade.” They allow a state to take measures contrary to GATT that:

are necessary to protect public morals;

are necessary to protect human, animal, or plant life or health;

relate to the importation or exportation of gold or silver;

are necessary to secure compliance with laws or regulations that are not inconsistent with

GATT;

relate to the products of prison labor;

protect national treasures of artistic, historic, or archaeological value;

relate to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources;

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are undertaken in accordance with an intergovernmental commodity agreement;

involve restrictions on exports of domestic materials needed by a domestic processing

industry during periods when the domestic price of those materials is held below world prices

as part of a governmental stabilization plan; or

are essential to acquiring products in short supply.

Case 7-3: United States—Import Prohibition of Certain Shrimp and Shrimp Products

Facts: The United States appealed from a WTO Panel Report that held that U.S. regulations

Issues: (1) Must a certain sequence of steps be followed in analyzing compliance with Article

XX? (2) Are living natural resources exhaustible? (3) Was the U.S. regulation discriminatorily or

arbitrarily applied?

Holdings: (1) Yes. (2) Yes. (3) Yes.

Law: (1) According to United States—[Standards for Reformulated and Conventional] Gasoline,

Explanation: (1) The structure and logic of Article XX requires that the particular exceptions be

Order: The United States must bring its regulations into compliance with the GATT.

The security exceptions set out in Article XXI allow member states to avoid any obligations they

may have under GATT that are contrary to their “essential security interests” or that conflict with

their duties “under the United Nations Charter for the maintenance of international peace and

security.”

Export Controls – Member states commonly employ GATT exceptions to limit certain kinds of

exports. Examples of export controls that relate to the security exceptions set out in Article XXI

include export restrictions for national security reasons or in support of actions taken by the

United Nations in maintaining peace.

Protection of Cultural Property

The United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the

Organization of American States (OAS), and the International Institute for the Unification of

Private Law (Unidroit) have each sponsored conventions to control the international transfer of

cultural artifacts.

Trade in Goods

The UNESCO-sponsored Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of

Armed Conflict, signed at The Hague in 1954, is the oldest of these agreements. The

UNESCO-sponsored Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import,

Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, signed at Paris in 1970, establishes that

the import, export, and transfer of ownership of cultural property are illegal if they are done

contrary to laws adopted by states to protect their national heritage.

The OAS’s 1976 Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological, Historical, and Artistic

Heritage of the American Nations copies most of the provisions of the 1970 UNESCO

Convention, adding articles that make enforcement easier. The 1995 Unidroit Convention on

Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects requires member states to return stolen cultural

objects.

Maintenance of National Security

Following World War II, export restrictions became a prominent feature of the West’s Cold War

with the East, and by 1949, the United States and its Western European allies had enacted

legislation limiting exports to the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies. In 1949, the

United States and its allies formed the Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls

(COCOM). In 1993, with the Cold War at an end, the COCOM member states agreed that its

East–West focus was no longer an appropriate basis for establishing export controls, and they

agreed to bring the committee to an end.

The Wassenaar Arrangement: In July 1996, 33 countries approved the Wassenaar Arrangement on

Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies. Its goals are to

promote transparency, the exchange of views and information, and greater responsibility in

transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies.

Member countries are required to maintain export controls on a list of agreed-upon items.

Additionally, they make semi-annual reports on the transfer of arms and controlled dual-use

items.

Membership is open to all countries on a nondiscriminatory basis. A member must be a producer

of arms or an exporter of industrial equipment; maintain nonproliferation policies and appropriate

national policies, including adherence to relevant nonproliferation regimes and treaties; and

maintain fully effective export controls.

Other Multilateral Export-Control Programs – The Australia Group is an informal multilateral

group of states established to address concerns about the proliferation of chemical and biological

warfare capabilities. Members meet annually to share information about proliferation dangers and

to harmonize their national export controls in an effort to curb the transfer of materials or

equipment that could be used in the creation of chemical or biological weapons.

The Zangger Committee was set up the year after the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

Weapons came into force. It works to harmonize the member states’ interpretations of the

export-control provision of the treaty.

The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is a group of nuclear supplier countries—including members

and nonmembers of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons—that seeks to

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contribute to the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons by maintaining control lists for nuclear

exports and nuclear-related exports.

The Missile Technology Control Regime was established in 1987 to limit the proliferation of

missiles “capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” This is an informal group with no permanent

organization; each member administers its missile-related export controls independently.

United Nations Action to Maintain International Peace

The United Nations Charter authorizes the UN Security Council to impose sanctions, including

the adoption of bans on trade, on states whose actions threaten international peace, and on several

occasions it has imposed such sanctions.