Economic interventionism and international trade law in the Covid era

Following a general introduction, the arguments are developed into three themes. The first concerns the relation between existing international trade rules and caselaw, state intervention in the economy, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Its main aim is to explore what a study of international trade rules and institutions dealing with the material question of regulating prominent forms of state intervention in the market can tell us about the nature of global governance in the Covid-19 era and, particularly, about the rise of the state as an economic actor. The second examines the current trends in the trade policy of the US, China, the EU, and Japan, pointing to their different approaches and considering emerging similarities regarding the strategic use of subsidies and SOEs in the aftermath of Covid-19. The third looks specifically at the overarching normative question of how global trade rules should deal with the heterogeneity of economic models as a matter of reorientation of the caselaw, amendment of the existing rules, and introduction of new ones.