ABSTRACT
This chapter completes the general section of the book by considering trade, competition, and environmental law with reference to the energy sector.
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was signed in 1947 as a reaction to the protectionism of the 1920s and 1930s. It was founded within the framework of the establishment of the new world order to re-establish an international marketplace and promote free world trade. At the same time, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the International Trade Organisation (ITO) were set up. Although they did not come into existence then, the GATT was applied from January 1948 with the high Contracting Parties creating an institutional structure by a series of decisions similar to those in an international treaty system rather than an organisation. In the absence of an executive decision-making organ, a mechanism of ‘rounds’ of multinational trade negotiations was developed with a number of supplementary treaties or side agreements that did not have to be signed by all parties. As the GATT only affects international trade in goods, during the Uruguay Round in 1994, it was decided to establish the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which encompasses the GATT 1994 as well as the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the General Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS),1 and the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIM).2 The WTO recognises the importance of environmental measures and sustainable development and is an actor within the energy field as energy is a ‘good’ within the framework of GATT.
