Eurasian Economic Union and World Trade Organization: Interrelation of Legal Regimes

Abstract

In the paper the issue of interrelation between the WTO and EAEU legal regimes is divided into threesub issues, i.e. the WTO legal regime and EAEU legal regime in the system of international law; thenorms of the EAEU law in the WTO legal regime; the norms of the WTO agreements in the legal regimeof the EAEU. The WTO and EAEU legal regimes are part of the international law; they are part ofautonomous rule complex which governs international trade relations in the framework of multilateraltrade system. The WTO and EAEU legal regimes are not isolated from the system of international lawand should be interpreted and applied on the basis of the principle of harmonization aimed at systematicintegration. The provisions of the Treaty on the EAEU do not represent “development of or addition”to the WTO agreements. Therefore, the Treaty on the EAEU and WTO agreements are not “treatiesrelating to the same subject matter” in the context of Article 30 of the Vienna Convention on the Law ofTreaties of 1969 (VCLT). RTAs are not “agreements to modify” WTO multilateral agreements betweencertain of the parties in the context of Article 41 of the VCLT. In case of the contradiction between thenorm of WTO agreement and the norm of the Treaty on EAEU the norm of the WTO agreement shouldbe applied. The norms of the RTAs are authorized legal exceptions from GATT and GATS. Furthermorethe norms of the RTA are not considered by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body as rules of law ratherthey are considered as measures applied by the member-states of such agreements. This conclusionalso works for the norms of the EAEU law. Moreover, all the conducts of the EAEU are attributable toevery EAEU member-state, including Russia. The tribunals of the RTAs, including EAEU Court do nothave jurisdiction to settle disputes under the WTO covered agreements. However, the EAEU Court isauthorized to take into account WTO agreements interpreting the norms of EAEU law.