Study On Legal Issues And Countermeasures Concerning Special Rules For State-owned Enterprises And Related Subsidies

Since China’s accession to the WTO,the pace of development of Chinese StateOwned Enterprises(SOEs)has accelerated rapidly,the level of their internationalization has improved remarkably,and their international competitive advantages have become increasingly prominent.Meanwhile,the international controversy that has arisen related to SOEs has also been rampant.In recent years,the negotiation of international trade and economic rules led by developed countries has paid more and more attention to SOEs and related subsidies.These western countries,on the one hand,use their discretion to regulate and constrain SOEs under the framework of domestic law as a “test field” by interpreting,applying and developing the existing multilateral rules;on the other hand,actively seek to immobilize,standardize and internationalize relevant theories and practices through bilateral and regional approaches,with the intention of leading the formation of a new multilateral rules system.This new system,however,involves special rules quite different with and far exceeding the current WTO rules with respect to definitions,standards,etc.,which addresses problems extending from trade policy to industrial programmes,covers fields from trade remedy rules to competition laws,and regulates scopes from intra-border impact to out-of-border implication,thus causing severe challenges to the multilateral trade rules.In this regard,China should judge the situation carefully and stay fully awake,so as to consider the above-mentioned special rules related to SOEs and subsidies in a dialectic manner,contributing to the promotion of further reform for China’s SOEs,as well as creation of a more equitable and favorable institutional environment for their internationalization.This paper studies the special rules in regulating the SOEs and related subsidies(SRSS)by synthetically analyzing the relative theories,propositions and practices raised by western countries such as the United States(US)and European Union(EU).Chapter One describes the background of the issue,introduces theoretical and practical significance of the study,and briefs the current situation of research,both domestic and overseas.Chapter Two,systematically outlines the historical evolution of related concepts and principles,clarifies the relationship between them and the domestic laws of the US and EU as well as the western institutions and values,in order to figure out “what is SRSS”,then addresses “where is SRSS from” by tracing the legal incentives behind and exploring the historical conditions and objective factors that facilitate its formation.Chapter Three summarizes the trials of the materialization of such concepts and principles in bilateral or regional trade agreements led by the US and EU in recent years as well as their further attempts and measures in multilateral occasions,which makes the evolution sequence and extension direction of the extraterritorial promotion behaviors clear enough to answer“where does SRSS go”.Chapter Four analyses in detail the key legal issues implicated in SRSS as well as its progress and defects by focusing on the differences between SRSS and WTO rules,clarifies its “beyond-WTO” nature,thus solving “why is SRSS special”.Chapter Five,based on China’s national conditions,makes suggestions as to “how to do with SRSS” by proposing China’s positions,approaches and countermeasures under the new pattern of reform and opening up.Finally,Chapter Six concludes the paper.