States may adopt unilateral trade measures. While some of these measures fit within the international regulatory framework and are therefore legal, the international legality of some others is questionable.

The former include, fundamentally, the imposition of anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties, safeguard measures and measures relating to national security, the latter having acquired a marked prominence in the era of trade wars (for example, the dispute between Russia and Ukraine, WTO/DS512).

Among the latter, it is worth mentioning the so-called sanctions or economic coercion measures, for which the Helms Burton Act offers a recent illustration of the intervention of the Spanish judicial administration, beyond the measures adopted in this respect by the European Union itself.