UAE Files Complaint Against Qatar at WTO

The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it had filed a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) after Qatar banned UAE goods in its markets.

The move comes following the Qatari Ministry of Economy's ban on the sale of consumer goods manufactured in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt as well as the decision of the country's Ministry of Public Health to stop pharmacies from selling medicines and other products imported from these four countries.

Qatar also removed the names of UAE companies from the list of approved vendors for infrastructure projects and has maintained an undeclared ban on products coming from the UAE.

The UAE considered the measures taken by Qatar a flagrant violation of WTO rules.

Qatar took this action after it had started to settle disputes against the UAE through the WTO in August 2017.

However, rather than respecting the WTO to rule on its complaint, Qatar has instead decided to impose unilateral retaliatory measures, violating the very same rules it claims the UAE is violating, said WAM.

According to WTO’s rules, members who claim that another member has violated a WTO agreement must submit such claims to the Dispute Settlement Body.

The rules also explicitly prohibit members from unilaterally taking action in retaliation for alleged WTO violations.

Yet, that is precisely what Qatar has done here. Having filed a WTO case, Qatar cannot now disregard the rules of the WTO and impose retaliation on its own without a WTO decision.

As the UAE has made clear since the inception of Qatar's case, WTO rules specify that countries may take any action they consider necessary to protect their fundamental security interests.

Qatar tried to justify its decision by saying that these actions were taken to protect the safety of consumers and to combat illegal trafficking of goods.

However, it didn’t explain how products imported from the four countries pose a consumer safety risk or are considered illegal trafficking.