| As an important defensive tool inUnited States Trade Law,the section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 states that if the Secretary of Commerce determines that the import of an item may threaten to harm national security,the President has the right to take action to "adjust" the import for protecting the national security of the United States.The section 232 enumerates the five substantive standards that the administrative authorities have identified as "threatening to harm national security",including "essential supplies""emergency supplies reserves" "impact of imports on domestic welfare" "foreign policy considerations" "determining the effects of import restrictions".As the National Security Clause,the core element of "National Security" has not been clarified,however,it is generally believed that the national security in the section 232 needs to consider military requirements,diplomatic guarantees and ecobomic security.Besides,the United States"national security" has the dual attributes of traditional military security and trade remedies,so the section 232 is a mixture of national security clauses and trade remedy clauses.According to United States Trade Law,due to the establishment of economic security in the United States "National Security","the section 232" and "the section 201"(that is,safeguard measures)have certain similarities,but "the section 232" is not a"variations of the section 201",because of the different quotes,the different investigation procedures,and the different determination criteria.At the same time,combined with the conclusions of the Appellate Body in the "Indonesia Safeguard Measures for Certain Steel Products",the "232 measures" are difficult to meet the necessary elements of the identified safeguard measures,such as lack of "damage analysis",Therefore,the "232 measures" also do not belong to the safeguard measures of WTO law.Nevertheless,given that the "232 measures" do not meet the conditions for invoking the GATT Article 21,it does not have the legality of international law.In response,in the future,when facing the "232 measures",China should actively cooperate with the hearings in the "232 investigations",and if necessary,conduct transnational litigation with enterprises as the main body,and at the same time do not fear the "232 measures" introducing the DSB. |
