A lot of the discussion on the Seal Products case in previous posts highlights the difficulty of reconciling the various WTO non-discrimination obligations: GATT Articles I:1 and III:4; GATT Article III:4 and TBT 2.1; the GATT Article XX chapeau and TBT 2.1; etc.
This makes me wonder whether the system would be better off if we had a single non-discrimination obligation that applied to trade in goods generally. If designed properly, it might not need an exception, so you could really do it in just one provision.
And it could even bridge the gap between border measures and internal regulations: Since non-discriminatory import restrictions can be justified under Article XX, Article XI does not add much beyond non-discrimination (of a certain kind).
Aside from the fact that politically it's a non-starter, what does everyone think? Should all types of measures be subject to a single non-discrimination obligation, perhaps along the lines of the language of TBT 2.1?
