Research On WTO Export Restriction System

Since the assigning of GATT, the Case of China-Raw Materials Exports is the first international legal dispute initiated by raw resource export restrictions, and also the first affirmative award case executed by WTO dispute settlement body on raw resource export restrictions. This case involves various law issues such as the legitimacy of export restriction measures in China, the balance between trade rights and state economic sovereignty, the conflict between trade freedom and national resource security, the uncertainty on whether " WTO-plus obligations" assumed by China could be automatically extended to the field of export restrictions, etc.By analyzing Report of Panel/Appellate Body in this case, this thesis firstly clarifies the definitions of several terms including "exhaustible natural resources","relating to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources"and "making effective in conjunction with restrictions on domestic production or consumption", and the criteria for determining the following items including "even-handed","necessity" and "exception", and then this thesis teases out the export restriction system composed of general rules, exceptional rules, procedural rules, domestic rules and the Panel’s explanations which can lay theoretical and institutional basis on forming theoretically a complete legal system composed of both import trade management system and export trade management system. Based on teasing out such an system, this thesis further proposes some suggestions on perfecting WTO export management system in connection with legal issues arising for the Chinese export restrictions case from the aspects of legal sources, substantive and procedural systems.Due to the ambiguity of WTO export restriction system in its contents, the vagueness of the relationship between The Protocol on the Accession of the People’s Republic of China and GATT1994Article XX and the differences between Chinese export restrictions and WTO export restrictions, China should analyze the effects of the adjudication in a quantitative way, implement the aims which emphasize both trade freedom and environment protection, perfect WTO export restriction system, so是lve the disputes under the framework of WTO, stress the decisive role of key evidence in solving WTO trade disputes, construct a coordinated and harmonious natural resource management system and ultimately balance the relationship among trade freedom, national resource security and state economic sovereignty.