Conflicts between United States Immigration Law and the General Agreement on Trade in Services: Most-Favored-Nation Obligation
63 Pages Posted: 29 Nov 2008
Date Written: December 1, 2006
Abstract
United States laws establishing qualifications for temporary, nonimmigrant classifications are potentially in violation of the United States' obligations under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). These violations, if ever the subject of a WTO dispute, may force the United States to choose between accepting trade sanctions and changing existing immigration policy under external pressure. In either case, by consenting to the GATS at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (Uruguay Round) and not necessarily complying with it, the United States has incurred potential WTO liabilities. If a dispute over immigration law was successful, the United States would be forced by the coercive trade power of its international obligations to change what is normally considered one of the most sovereign of attributes of statehood, the very power to determine which aliens are qualified to enter and remain in the country.
Keywords: United States, law, immigration, nonimmigrant, World Trade Organization, WTO, General Agreement on Trade in Services, GATS, dispute settlement
JEL Classification: K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation