From a recent news report:
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Friday halted what was to have been the first U.S. execution to use the popular anesthetic propofol, following threats from the European Union to limit the drug's export if it were used for that purpose.
Nixon also ordered the Missouri Department of Corrections to come up with a different way to perform lethal injections without propofol, the leading anesthetic used in America's hospitals and clinics. Nearly 90 percent of the nation's propofol is imported from Europe.
...
The leading propofol maker, Germany-based Fresenius Kabi, and anesthesiologists had warned of a possible propofol shortage that could impact millions of Americans if any executions took place.
It's not clear to me exactly what the "threats from the EU" were. They may just have been from the German company that was mentioned. But let's say it was an EU governmental entity threatening export restrictions. For WTO purposes, if the threat were carried out, you would have the withholding of a drug used for anesthesia, in order to prevent it being used for the death penalty. How would that be judged under GATT Articles XX(a) and XX(b)?
