Research On The Conflicts Of Dispute Resolution Mechanism Between World Trade Organization And Regional Trade Organization

Nowadays the World Trade Organization is the largest multilateral tradeorganization in the world, among which the Dispute Resolution Body provides aplatform for different member countries to settle their trade conflicts transparentlyand peacefully. Based on the regional trade agreement, the regional tradeorganization is the outcome of Economic Globalization and Regional EconomicIntegration. The legal documents related to the RTA in the WTO law system areArticle24of 《General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade》(GATT1994)，Understanding on the Interpretation of Article24of the GATT1994，the EnablingClause in Tokyo Round and Article5of 《General Agreement on Service》(GATS).Until January2013, there are already250regional trade organizations comeinto effect by informing WTO. Most of these RATs have their own independentdispute settlement mechanisms which are quite different from the mechanism ofWTO. Countries or states who are both the member of an RAT and WTO willinevitably confront the problem arised by the conflicts of jurisdiction. No matterwhat methods countries chose to settle the disputes, the purpose are always to settlethe trade dispute fairly and efficiently thus promote the positive development ofinternational trade. This thesis dedicates to find the corresponding settlement methods through the analysis of the different dispute settlement mechanisms inWTO and RATs.The content of this thesis can be divided into four parts as follows: in ChapterOne, the author analyzes the jurisprudence of the WTO dispute settlementmechanism, to clarify its purposes and value orientation,to illustrate the scope andnature of its jurisdiction as well as to indicate the shortages and imperfections indesign and practice of this mechanism; In Chapter Two, the author elaborates therelation between the regional trade organization and WTO, then introduces severalmain RATs in the world and focus on the conflicts of jurisdiction between theNAFTA and WTO based on case analysis; in Chapter Three,by introducing thedifferent theories and practices of the conflicts of jurisdiction, the author tries to finda balance point between the RAT and WTO thus to provide a great diversity way ofdispute settlement while maintain the unity of the world multilateral trademechanism in order to settle the trade friction in an efficient and fair way; in ChapterFour, the author introduces the WTO cases and the regional trade area which Chinatook part in and then analyzes three free trade agreements that is CAFTA、CloserEconomic Partnership Arrangement(“CEPA”)and Economic CooperationFramework Agreement,”ECFA”, to make suggestions to the established disputesettlement mechanism as well as to put forward assumption to those will be set up inthe near future.