The World Trade Organization and Energy : Fuel for Debate

The WTO can no longer afford to neglect energy. While out of focus for many decades, the realization that the Organization needs a discourse on energy has finally sounded through to the WTO itself. During the first ever workshop on the issue at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, former Director-General Pascal Lamy emphasized the necessity of a dialogue on energy trade in the WTO.1 Questions pertaining to the legal aspects of energy trade in the WTO can be expected to emerge with increasing frequency. But is the WTO ready and capable of addressing these issues and provide clear answers? This ESIL Reflection will first briefly show that the GATT/WTO legal framework has in fact always – at least de jure – covered trade in energy. Then, it will discuss some of the major legal challenges that the regulation of energy trade poses to the WTO legal framework. It will also touch upon the relevance of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) for solving some of these problems