The Conflicts And Coordination Of Trade Facilitation Agreement And Relevant Treaties

The long-term development of trade liberalization has yielded fruitful results.Global tariffs have been lowered and non-tariff barriers have been effectively controlled.The negative effects of traditional tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers on international trade is wearing off.The global market is finally formed,and the cross-border flow of goods gets more frequent in the era that global value chains continue integrating and upgrading.Under this circumstance,the procedural issues in international trade which have gradually caused the blockage of the circulation of goods have caused wide concern.Trade facilitation aims to create a convenient,coordinated and transparent environment for international trade activities,so as to form a new type of trade relations featuring simplified trade procedures,simplified documents and transparent information.It is almost a consensus that global dividends will be generated by the promotion of trade facilitation and the reduction of time and fees for import,export and transit.Previous trade facilitation measures by other international organizations and regional organizations were deficient,and GATT’s provisions on the issue are not detailed enough.Changes in the global trading environment and limitations of the existing international legal framework call for a more binding and targeted treaty,and the Trade Facilitation Agreement comes into being.After tough negotiations in the WTO and fierce competition between various parties,the Trade Facilitation Agreement was adopted in 2013 and finally entered into force in February 2017.As the only substantive outcome of the Doha round,it has distinct features from other previous WTO agreements.It focuses on the issues of inefficiencies’ in international trade and aims to overcome procedural barriers.The theoretical basis and provisions of the Trade Facilitation Agreement worth in-depth study,while the study on its implementation is of more practical significance.This paper studies the conflicts and coordination between Trade Facilitation Agreement and relevant treaties,aiming to explore the problems in the implementation process from the perspective of treaty conflict and coordination,so as to promote its implementation.This paper is divided into five chapters.The basic theory of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the conflicts between it and other treaties are firstly proposed.Then the concrete manifestation and the coordination path of of its conflicts with relevant treaties is thoroughly probed.Finally,through the study of the relationship between China and Trade Facilitation Agreement,China’s countermeasures are put forward.According this logical structure,the paper demonstrates the conflicts and coordination between Trade Facilitation Agreement and relevant treaties.The first chapter of this paper discusses the basic theory of the Trade Facilitation Agreement,defines the concept of trade facilitation,and summarizes the concept and characteristics of trade facilitation according to the definitions which have different emphases on trade facilitation of international organizations.Afterwards,clarify the relationship between trade facilitation and trade liberalization.Trade facilitation develops from trade liberalization and has a close relation with it.However,there are many differences between the two concepts in specific content and practice.Analyzing the difference and connection between trade facilitation and trade liberalization is conducive to exploring the unique features of trade facilitation and further exploring the unique features of Trade Facilitation Agreement.At the same time,the related theories of trade facilitation--global value chain theory and its internal connection with trade facilitation are expounded.In addition,the first chapter also studies the application of trade facilitation theory in Trade Facilitation Agreement.As a new development of trade facilitation theory Trade Facilitation Agreement reflects the content of the theoretical system of trade facilitation.The second chapter studies the basic theory of the conflicts between Trade Facilitation Agreement and relevant treaties from the perspective of treaty conflict and coordination.Based on the research of the theory of treaty conflict and coordination,general methods that can provide guidance for conflict coordination between Trade Facilitation Agreement and other treaties can be proposed.At the same time,the causes of the conflicts between Trade Facilitation Agreement and relevant treaties are figured out from the general and specific perspectives.From the general perspective,it is mainly caused by the fragmentation of international law.In terms of specific reasons,the conflicts between Trade Facilitation Agreement and relevant treaties in the import and export sector are mainly caused by the antagonism between trade facilitation and trade security value objectives.The conflicts in transit sector are mainly caused by the divergence between trade target of Trade Facilitation Agreement and non-trade target of other treaties.On this basis,the characteristics of the conflicts between Trade Facilitation Agreement and relevant treaties are pointed out,that is,the diversity of conflict manifestations,the complexity of conflict causes and the differentiation of coordination methods.The third and fourth chapter is the core part of the paper,mainly studying the concrete manifestation of treaty conflicts between the Trade Facilitation Agreement and relevant treaties through theoretical elaboration and comparative analysis.The corresponding coordination path is also studied in this part.The conflicts and coordination fall into two categories according to the procedure of international trade:one is about the conflicts and coordination between the facilitation provisions for import and export procedures of Trade Facilitation Agreement and relevant treaties,the other is about the conflicts and coordination between the facilitation provisions for transit procedures of Trade Facilitation Agreement and relevant treaties.Conflicts in the import and export sector is mainly caused by the conflict between the value goal of trade facilitation as advertised in the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the value goal of trade security contained in other treaties.Specifically,the conflicts mainly include the conflicts between Trade Facilitation Agreement and TBT,SPS agreements,as well as the conflicts between Trade Facilitation Agreement and SAFE Framework.In order to coordinate the former conflict,the principle of value priority and cooperation of international organizationsin are mainly applied,while for the latter,the principle of conflict clause priority,the principle of post-law priority and the principle of value priority are mainly used,and the role of treaty interpretation is also played.In transit sector,conflict is mainly manifested as the conflicts between the provisions of the freedom of transit in the Trade Facilitation Agreement and that in part x of Convention on the Law of the Sea,as well as the enforcement measures of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement on intellectual property rights of transit goods.For the former,the principle of post-law priority and the principle of value priority should be used for coordination.The principle of value priority and treaty interpretation should be used for the latter one.The fifth chapter of this paper are from the perspective of China’s coping strategies,solutions to resolve the conflicts between Trade Facilitation Agreement and relevant treaties are put forward.As a party to Trade Facilitation Agreement,China has the obligation to fulfill the agreement.To deal with with the conflicts between Trade Facilitation Agreement and relevant treaties,in terms of domestic approaches,coordination between domestic legislation and the Trade Facilitation Agreement should be promoted,at the international level,China’s discourse power should be enhanced in the process of relevant treaty changes,in order to promoting the coordination of relevant treaties and Trade Facilitation Agreement.