The GATT/WTO regime is built on an export-bias, with trading nations aiming to export goods and services while keeping foreign producers from their domestic market so as to protect domestic producers from competition. Therefore, the vast majority of WTO rules are concerned with regulation on the liberalisation of import restrictions, tariffs and non-tariff barriers, but touch only lightly on export restrictions. The emphasis on the liberalisation of import barriers can be attributed to the built-in mercantilist tendencies of the GATT/WTO system – an arm of the post-World War II international economic order – and viewed as a direct response to the earlier erection of insurmountable import tariffs, which led to the Great Depression and the accompanying political turmoil. The weaknesses of such one-sided regulation out of export-bias are exposed by the proliferation of export restrictive measures adopted in the name of national security and in a time of pandemic. Export restrictions may pose great challenges to the global supply chain, given the geographical distribution of production chains out of economic globalisaiton, and exacerbate food insecurity of food-importing countries.

This chapter discusses the controversial status of energy in international trade law from the early years of GATT up to the present time. It exposes as mistaken the assumption that energy was de jure excluded from the scope of GATT and the WTO through a study of commitments made in early GATT schedules. The chapter then analyses the factors have led to energy attracting more attention in the multilateral trading system, such as the oil crises in the 1970s, the emergence of new types of energy, the accession of major energy producers to the WTO and the inclusion of energy services as a negotiation topic in the Doha Round. Finally, the chapter discusses energy as a topic in WTO accession protocols and the rise of energy-related disputes in the WTO Dispute Settlement System