This paper reviews the World Trade Organization (WTO) Panel Report Russia – Measures Concerning Traffic in Transit of April 2019. It constitutes the first attempt to disentangle the legal and political aspects related to the invoked essential security interests from the economic considerations underlying the measures imposed on the transit through Russia of goods exported from Ukraine to the Republic of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. One the one hand, the panel's interpretation of Article XXI of the GATT denies Members unilateral determination over security exceptions. It further enables a pathway for future WTO panels to review possible abuses of security exceptions – a growing concern due to the rising complexity of transnational economic relations. On the other hand, our economic analysis suggests a stricter assessment of Russia's transit restrictions was necessary. In particular, it argues that the panel adopted a circular assessment when considering the plausibility of whether Russia implemented its measures for the protection of its essential security interests at a time of emergency in international relations. Ultimately, although the panel's focus on finding a diplomatic and legal path forward failed economic scrutiny a legal assessment argues that the panel's findings fit the legal design of Article XXI:b of the GATT.

中文翻译：

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将政治与经济分开：俄罗斯—过境交通专家组报告

本文回顾了世界贸易组织 (WTO) 小组报告俄罗斯——过境交通措施2019 年 4 月。这是首次尝试将与援引的基本安全利益相关的法律和政治方面与对从乌克兰出口到哈萨克斯坦共和国和吉尔吉斯斯坦的货物通过俄罗斯过境所采取的措施所依据的经济考虑分开。一方面，专家组对 GATT 第 21 条的解释否定了成员对安全例外的单方面决定。它进一步为未来的 WTO 专家组审查可能滥用安全例外情况提供了途径——由于跨国经济关系日益复杂，这一问题日益受到关注。另一方面，我们的经济分析表明，有必要对俄罗斯的过境限制进行更严格的评估。特别是，它辩称，专家组在考虑俄罗斯是否在国际关系紧急情况下采取措施保护其基本安全利益的合理性时采用了循环评估。最终，尽管专家组专注于寻找外交和法律途径，但未能通过经济审查，但法律评估认为，专家组的调查结果符合 GATT 第 XXI:b 条的法律设计。