Comparative Study Of Regional Trade Arrangements Dispute Settlement Mechanisms

Recently all the countries around the world faced the similar dilemma: At one hand, the globalization urged them to promote the inter-countries cooperation to an advanced level, however at the other hand, they found that it was very difficult to reach the goal through the way of Multilateral Trade Arrangement. So, more and more countries are diverting their ways into Regional Trade Arrangement (RTA). Actually since 1990s, the development of RTA around the world has never been slow dawn. From very beginning to now, the RTA has been completely changed in its range, numbers and converges, and therefore played much more important role in the world stage than before. For any RTA it's very crucial to have an elaborate and well thought-out dispute settlement mechanism (DSM) in order to keep the organization working in the most effective way and achieve all the parties'intention interest of building the RTA. A lot of scholars are focusing their attentions to evaluating and consummating the DSM of existing RTA and to the techniques of building a new DSM based on all the experience we already have.In chapter 1, the author gives a very clear definition of RTA'connotation, analyzes the reasons behind RTA's emergence and categorizes RTA's different types. The author also predicts the tendency of RTA in the future based on its historical evolution. In chapter 2, the author compares different dispute settlement mechanism models of typical RTAs around the world and points out each one's merits and demerits. From chapter3 to chapter5, the author contrasts the dispute settlement body (DSB), the dispute settlement's coverage and the procedures of the DSM of those typical RTAs worldwide, including EU, NAFTA, ASEAN and CAFTA separately. The core content and innovation of this article is to do an overall comparison of those important RTAs in the world.The progress of Chinese economy in the 20th century is so astonishing, so China has been taking more active part in the cooperation between different countries, especially playing an important role to promote RTA's growth. Among all the RTAs our country has participated CEFTA has very important meaning. Lots scholars are endeavoring to consummate the DSM of CEFTA. Therefore this thesis also takes CEFTA as an important analytic object. And the main purpose of this thesis is to put forward opinions about weaknesses of current DSM of CEFTA by comparing all the aspects of its DSM with those more developed DSM of EU, NAFTA and ASEAN. The practical significance of the thesis lies on helping exploring the DSM of Chinese RTAs'improvement.