Title：Expert Remarks from the “Trade War and International Law” Seminar

Author：WTO Law Research Society

Abstract：On August 3, 2025, the online “Trade War and International Law” seminar was successfully held. The topics discussed included: (1) trade war: analysis of the causes, current situation, and impacts of the ongoing trade war, and predictions of its future developments; (2) international law: conformity of tariff increases, trade retaliation, and bilateral agreements with WTO rules; the international legal basis for trade countermeasures; potential amendments to WTO rules due to the trade war; the nature of WTO rules as international law. Experts concluded that the United States had transformed tariffs from a trade instrument into a “weapon” for addressing non-trade issues such as drugs, immigration, and geopolitics, thereby committing systemic violations of core obligations including most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment, tariff bindings, transparency, and non-discrimination; at the same time, many members have also deviated from WTO rules in their countermeasures or compromise-based bilateral agreements, resulting in the accelerated marginalisation of the multilateral trading system. On possible solutions, experts proposed strengthening transparency review of “reciprocal tariffs”, establishing a WTO committee review mechanism to curb abuse of the “national security exception”, leveraging US domestic judicial review, applying the moral and practical dimensions of the “Clean Hands” doctrine, broader use of countermeasures under ARSIWA, and accelerating institutional opening and regulatory mutual recognition. Amid the crisis, positive signals remain: most WTO members have not fully embraced protectionism but have instead accelerated negotiations on traditional free trade agreements and domestic reforms.

Keywords：Trade War, WTO, Trade Countermeasures, Multilateralism