Volume 10: Economic Impact and International Trade
5.
The framework for the export of cattle, beef and cattle-derived products
International obligations
5.29 The rules of international trade are established by a number of mechanisms including custom, the agreement of the parties, commercial associations, national law, bilateral agreements between countries and multinational agreements. To a greater or lesser extent, each of these mechanisms gives rise to legally enforceable rights and obligations.
5.30 What should be noted here, however, is that by default, international law places the burden on the importing country to prohibit or regulate the importation of particular goods. There is no general international regime which dictates which goods may or may not be traded. When there has been an attempt to regulate or prohibit international trade in a particular commodity, it has been done in a piecemeal fashion. Examples of this approach include the regulation of the trade in fissionable material, 1 narcotics 2 and endangered species. 3 No international treaty was specifically directed to trade in MBM, animal feed, cattle or cattle-derived products.
1 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons: see C Grossman, 'Supervision within the International Atomic Energy Agency' in P van Dijk, Ed., Supervisory Mechanisms in International Organisations, TMC Asser Instituut, the Hague, 1984
2 See S K Chatterjee, Legal Aspects of International Drug Control, Martinus Nijhoff Pub., The Hague, 1981
3 See David Favre, International Trade in Endangered Species, Martinus Nijhoff Pub., Dordrecht, 1989
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