On The WTO Dispute China-Measures Affecting Imports Of Automobile Parts

On July 18, 2008, the World Trade Organization issued the panel report of the disputes between China and the European Community, the United States and Canada concerning the measures China enforced which affecting imports of automobile parts from these three countries. The report ruled that the relevant measures taken by the Chinese government in violation of the national treatment obligation under article 3, the bound tariff obligation under article 2, and did not consist with the general exception under article 20 of "the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade". On December 15, 2008, in addition to correcting the finding of China's violation of its commitment in paragraph 93 of China's Accession Working Party Report, the Appellate Body upheld the Panel's findings basically. This is the first time of WTO dispute settlement body ruled China in violation of its WTO obligations.Throughout the disputes settlement process, there were some problems and deficiencies in China's performance actually, which directly or indirectly led to China's lost. For example, the lack of a unified mechanism to harmonize the application of WTO dispute settlement mechanism in China's administrative system, the efficiency and actual results of the coordination merely depend on the Department of Treaty and Law of the Ministry of Commerce are often unsatisfactory. The legal basis of the measures in disputes which adopted by China was lack of coordination with the legal system of WTO, this made China so passive in disputes settlement of this case.Besides the introduction and conclusion, there are three parts of this thesis.The first part of this thesis introduces the process of the debate between China and the complaining parties—the EC, the United States and Canada, and look for the causes of lost and the problems depends on this. The parties debated fiercely on the problems of whether the measures are internal measures or border measures, whether the measures violate the national treatment obligation under article 3 and is consist with the general exception under article 20 of "the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade" and the commitment in paragraph 93 of China's Accession Working Party Report or not.The second part of this thesis is the in-depth analysis of China's deficiencies manifested in the disputes settlement of this case: the lack of a unified mechanism to harmonize the application of WTO dispute settlement mechanism in China's administrative system; the deficiencies of domestic legislation; the unseemliness and mistakes of the litigant strategies; and the lack of excellent WTO legal professionals.The third part of this thesis discusses the problem-solving paths. This thesis discusses the problem solving paths at the system, the legislation, the strategy and skill of disputes settlement and the selection and training of elites aspects: firstly, there should be a unified standing body to harmonize the application of WTO dispute settlement mechanism between the departments so as to confront the continuously emerging and increasingly complex disputes; secondly, in the formulation of international trade-related legal documents, not only the NPC and its Standing Committee but also the State Council and its departments must be sure whether the drafts of law violate the WTO law or not, and use the Trade Policy Review Mechanism to check whether its own legislation in conflict with the WTO legal system or not; thirdly, there must be scientific selection and training of the elites who is good at WTO laws and foreign languages, so as to solve the dilemma of the shortage of elites in the disputes settlement in WTO; additionally, there must be much more comprehensive strategies and excellent skills in disputes settlement.