Defence Offsets as Hidden Trade Barriers:

A Practitioner’s Perspective

Nicolas Groffman

 

ABSTRACT: How security‑of‑supply policies collide with WTO and regional trade rules Defence‑sector offset and industrial‑participation requirements now operate as powerful trade and investment tools, but WTO rules were never designed with modern security‑industrial policy in mind. As advanced economies rediscover industrial policy and talk more loudly about ‘strategic autonomy’, the tension between defense offsets and core trade disciplines is becoming harder to ignore for governments and contractors alike.