Maritime Transport Services in the Law of the Sea and the World Trade Organization

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Since the beginnings of international law, the law of the sea has been of paramount importance for international trade. Yet this area of law and international trade regulations have developed as two distinct areas with little interface with each other. As the GATT/WTO emerged in parallel to the LOS Convention since the 1970s, both bodies have made extensive efforts in international treaty making. However, the relationship between trade regulations and the law of the sea has hardly been explored.

The author examines some key aspects of this relationship, in particular port entry, access to cargo in coastal shipping (cabotage) and access to cargo in international shipping. The inclusion of services in WTO law will render this relationship of great importance in the future as the agreement extensively covers maritime transport. It is just a matter of time until the current exclusion of maritime transport under special exemptions will be reviewed in future negotiations. The book provides the background and a normative basis for approaching some of the problems which members of the WTO will have to address in coming years. It also deals briefly with the problem of choice of law and competing jurisdictions between trade law and maritime law.