Economic Lawfare and WTO Law

In this chapter, I use a model of “economic lawfare” to explore how WTO members may interact with WTO law strategically to achieve security objectives. The model contains three types of interactions: application, conversion, and modification. Application implies that a State applies or enforces existing laws consistent with their stated purposes. Conversion means that a State uses laws serving purposes other than security protection to achieve security objectives. Modification implies formal changes to laws to achieve security objectives. I identify certain key WTO provisions for each type and discuss how members can interact with them. The main conclusion is that there are many possibilities for members to engage in economic lawfare through the application and conversion of WTO law, but not through modification. It is also argued that the model of “economic lawfare” is a valuable analytical tool that can be developed further to better understand how States can use, and are using, international economic law to protect security interests.