Research On The Legal Mechanism Of Mutual Recognition Of Technical Standards For Goods In Regional Trade Agreements

Today’s global trade liberalisation process is advancing in a tortuous manner,and trade cooperation between regions is gradually becoming the mainstream of economic and trade cooperation among countries.In regional trade,tariff barriers are gradually being improved and eliminated,while technical barriers to trade,represented by inconsistent technical standards,technical regulations and barriers to mutual recognition of conformity assessment procedures,have negative impacts including increasing the cost of trade and reducing the efficiency of trade.As the largest regional trade country,China’s total regional trade imports and exports amounted to RMB 30.5 trillion as of 2018,of which RMB 16.4 trillion was exported,with a trade surplus of RMB 2.3 trillion.According to relevant data,during the ten-year period from 2010 to 2020,a total of 1,004 trade remedy cases were initiated against China globally,and the losses caused by foreign technical trade measures to China’s export enterprises in 2016 alone amounted to more than 530 billion yuan.According to the WTO statistics on TBT and SPS measures,it is known that in recent years the US and EU have substantially more than before regarding the number of national technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary policies,with an increase of 55 and 52 respectively.Based on this,the construction of a legal mechanism for mutual recognition of standards will become an important safeguard for China in safeguarding regional trade.As the three most dynamic economies in the Northeast Asian region,China,Japan and South Korea have not reached an FTA among themselves for the time being.The FTA negotiations between China,Japan and South Korea have taken many years to take a new turn after the official signing of RCEP in2020,and in-depth negotiations have begun in substantive areas.Taking the FTA between China,Japan and Korea as the anchor point,this paper aims to apply the theoretical research on the legal mechanism of mutual recognition of goods standards under the framework of regional trade agreements to promote the mechanism of FTA between China,Japan and Korea,enhance the vitality of Asian markets and benefit the economic development of the three countries.The first part of this paper discusses the definition and jurisprudence of mutual recognition of technical standards for goods in regional trade,examining the concept of technical standards,the classification of technical standards and the characteristics of technical standards under regional trade agreements,as well as the concept of mutual recognition of technical standards in the context of regional trade agreements;the jurisprudence discusses the principles of national sovereignty and trade liberalisation.The second part analyses the experience of foreign developed countries in the mutual recognition of technical standards,and by specifying the experience of the European Union in the construction of technical regulations system and the signing of bilateral trade agreements,proposes to combine the principle provisions with the technical regulations of the contracting parties at the level of technical regulations and to apply them flexibly to promote the implementation of standardization,and to play the function of standardization bodies as a basic platform for coordinating and docking domestic standardization bodies among member countries,providing information exchange and developing standards that meet trade needs at the regional level.It is proposed that the standardisation bodies should be used flexibly to promote standardisation,and that they should function as a basic platform for coordinating domestic standardisation bodies among member countries,providing a means of information exchange,and developing standards that meet trade needs at the regional level,in order to build a system of mutual recognition of technical standards under the CJFTA.The TPP,with its focus on regulatory harmonisation and less on mutual recognition of conformity assessment results,and the adoption of a ’negative list’approach in the regulations for conformity assessment bodies,can be used as a reference;the RCEP,as the most closely aligned regional trade agreement,provides a superficial outline to help deepen the FTA between China,Japan and Korea.The third section analyses the free trade agreements that China has signed with Korea and New Zealand,and based on the total volume of trade and operability,it is concluded that the mutual recognition of technical standards should be carried out first for some electromechanical products,some chemical products and textiles under the China-Japan-Korea FTA,with a view to enhancing the degree of standard harmonisation in areas of advantageous production capacity.As there are already relevant provisions in the China-Korea FTA,it is possible to build on them and plan for future mutual recognition of standards in specific areas of goods in an open-ended enumeration.The standardisation cooperation agreement between China and New Zealand in the area of electrical and electronic products is a closed enumeration of product categories,which provides a reference for future mutual recognition agreements in the area of electrical and electronic products under the China-Japan-Korea FTA.This paper concludes that China should seize the breakthrough point of RCEP on free trade in the Asia-Pacific region,actively enhance the level of mutual recognition of technical standards through standard linkage and other means,accelerate the negotiation of the China-Japan-ROK FTA,and build a multi-level and all-round legal mechanism for the mutual recognition of technical standards for goods,so as to promote long-term and stable cooperation between China,Japan and Korea in the economic and trade fields.