Natural resources and non-WTO rules of international law

 The discussion is nicely leading to the next question: what other international rules are relevant to trade in natural resources and how do they relate to WTO rules?

a.    do regional agreements have any specific rules that could be relevant at the multilateral level?

b.    how about international commodity agreements? (note that the old concept of international commodity agreements is back on the WTO agenda; the Dec. 08 draft agriculture modalities text devotes a whole section of 12 paragraphs (paras. 91-102))

Then let me bring back Julia’s three questions:

a.      Is the principle of "permanent sovereignty over natural resources" still a generally accepted principle of international law? If so, what is the content of such permanent sovereignty?

b.     Is there any international norm that obligates a resource-rich nation to share its resources (including production) with resource-poor nations?

c.     Is there an international regime that restricts nations from exploring their own natural resources, such as destroying their own forest?