Protecting New Zealand from Weaponised Trade: Assessing the compliance of weaponised trade practises with international law obligations.

Abstract

Increasingly states are recognising the ability for economic power to act as political leverage. Such measures are known to demonstrate the recent weaponization of trade. Such actions seem to be at odds with the values and norms which underpin international obligations. However, despite this, states have demonstrated that they are still able to comply with their international law obligations. This therefore impacts the ability of states to achieve redress for the imposition of politically motivated trade measures, referred to as weaponised trade measures. This paper considers this issue in the New Zealand context in order understand how economically powerful states are able to be seemingly compliant with international obligations while still undermine the foundations of this system. In doing so it considers the integral link that exists between such obligations and the political environment that they sit in. As measures that push the boundaries of compliance continue to be utilised it highlights the limits of the WTO’s ability to deal with such measures. Therefore, acts which fall into the legal grey zone are subject to control of those states who maintain a degree of economic leverage. This paper therefore demonstrates the limitations of the WTO to deal effectively with geopolitical tensions. As conflict shifts towards the grey-zone and the lines between war and peace are blurred it can be difficult for states like New Zealand to rely on the security of rules-based trade system to protect themselves from weaponised trade.