Legal Analysis On Dispute Settlement Mechanism Of RCEP

On November 15,2020,eight years of negotiations between the 15 member states concluded and a landmark achievement was officially put into action.The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership（RCEP）has become the largest free trade agreement in the world.While embracing the world,expanding opening up,and seeking business opportunities,we should also take risks and disputes in international trade into consideration.Dispute settlement mechanism is the core provisions of international trade agreements.What’s more,the dispute settlement mechanism is of great importance for WTO and have played an important role in maintaining the authority,stability and predictability of the multilateral trading system since its establishment.The main part of dispute settlement of RCEP actually draws on the WTO’ s mechanism for hearing and adjudicating disputes through the establishment of dispute settlement expert groups to a large extent.In addition,the RCEP dispute settlement mechanism has inherited the relevant design of the CAFTA Agreement on Dispute Settlement Mechanism,forming a dispute settlement mechanism with the characteristics of the Asia-Pacific region and in line with the actual situation of the Asia-Pacific region.The main content of this paper is composed of three parts:The first part is introduction.On the basis of Chapter 19 Dispute Settlement of the RCEP Agreement,this part mainly introduces the background and development of the RCEP dispute settlement.Introducing the main content and characteristics of RCEP dispute settlement based on its specific provisions in order to grasp the mechanism from the whole.The second part is the comparison between RCEP dispute settlement with other dispute settlement mechanisms.In this part,the dispute settlement mechanisms of the World Trade Organization（WTO）and CAFTA（China and ASEAN Free Trade Area）are introduced,and compared with the aforementioned RCEP dispute settlement.Through the comparison,it can be seen which part of the WTO and CAFTA dispute settlement mechanism is referenced in the design of the RCEP dispute settlement,and what are the differences and innovations on this basis,so as to understand the RCEP dispute settlement mechanism in essence.The third chapter is about the deficiencies and improvement approaches of the RCEP dispute settlement mechanism.On the basis of the aforementioned content and researching the provisions of the agreement,that is,after comparing other dispute settlement mechanisms,I come up with my own views on the existing shortcomings and areas that can be improved in the RCEP dispute settlement mechanism.For example,the RCEP dispute settlement mechanism has some deficiencies in the aspects of dispute management,third-party provisions and the expert group.And I have put forward corresponding improvement suggestions respectively.However,it is only analyzed from a theoretical point of view.Whether these suggestions are necessarily correct and feasible still remains to be carried out in the follow-up practice.The fourth chapter elucidates the importance of RCEP dispute settlement to China from a macro perspective on the basis of the above-mentioned parts of this paper,and proposes corresponding countermeasures for China’s utilize of the RCEP dispute settlement mechanism from a practical point of view.