Sanitary and phytosanitary measures in international trade: policy considerations vs. economic reasoning

Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures are one form of non‐tariff international trade barrier with the objective of requiring consumer and intermediate goods to be safe and to provide information to protect consumers from deceptive practices. However, such barriers could severely restrict trade. The central strategy of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) SPS Agreement is to use science to distinguish between those SPS measures consistent with the Agreement and those in violation of the Agreement. SPS measures belong to what is known as trans‐science questions or questions which can be asked of science and yet which cannot be answered by science. Because of the presence of scientific uncertainty, science policies adopted by members should be identified by the WTO. WTO panels should not, however, establish scientific policies. Prohibitive measures would seem rather incompatible with the role the WTO assumed trying to promote free trade. Rather, facilitating the distribution of available information regarding SPS and food safety risk, or a lack of it, to consumers in importing countries would help them to make better informed decisions according to their own preferences and risk aversion.     

WTO《服务贸易总协定》下报复机制之实证研究

WTO成立以来,共有三起争端涉及GATS项下的报复问题。成员对服务业实施报复的能力、GATS规则解释上的不确定性、GATS四种服务提供模式的结构、服务贸易与外国直接投资的交叉等,使报复的实际进行非常复杂。为有效实施GATS项下的报复,发展中成员必须兼顾报复之经济影响与政治影响:经济影响只是一个方面,必须重视制造政治影响,选择曝光率高且具有政治影响力的服务部门进行报复,促使发达成员执行WTO争端裁决。     

Granting preferential market access in services sequentially versus jointly with goods

Despite the cost and resource‐effectiveness of joint trade negotiations and complementarities between goods and services‐trade flows, more than 12% of the 132 WTO‐notified services‐trade agreements (STAs) in force until August 2015 were entered into effect sequentially to goods‐trade accords. This stylised fact motivates our study of the determinants of joint versus sequential negotiation/accession of goods and services accords, a subject hitherto unexplored in the growing literature on the determinants of STA membership. Our results suggest larger marginal effects of fundamental economic, geographic, institutional, doing business and services regulatory factors on the propensity of joint negotiation/accession compared to STA formation alone. Moreover, cultural‐distance variables are only found to affect the likelihood of joint preferential liberalisation of goods and services trade, without influencing STA‐only membership.     

The political economy of non‐tariff measures

This paper examines the extent to which non‐tariff measures (NTM s) are set for protectionist purposes. Our main focus is on developing countries. Overall results show that NTM s reflect protectionist forces, in particular for those that have been subject to trade concerns at the World Trade Organization (WTO ). For the other measures, there is no evidence that protectionism is the driving force behind their adoption, suggesting that their determinants may be associated with legitimate goals such as consumer health and safety. Furthermore, transnational lobbying, defined as the participation of national business groups at the Ministerial Conferences—the highest authority of the WTO —is positively associated with the probability of adopting NTM s.     

Factors underlying sanitary and phytosanitary regulation for food and agricultural imports notified by WTO members

The impact of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures has been extensively studied in the trade literature. However, there is very scant research on the factors underlying the World Trade Organization (WTO) members’ regulatory process. The aim of this paper is to fill that gap, examining the main determinants for the development of SPS regulation considering the notifications presented by WTO members. A negative binomial regression was estimated, where the dependent variable was the number of SPS measures notified during the period 1995–2012 by WTO members, while the explanatory variables were related to each country: (1) agricultural production value; (2) agricultural imports weight; (3) health concerns; (4) agricultural import tariffs; and (5) scientific and legal capacities. The results provide evidence that legal and scientific capacities are major factors in the number of notifications presented by WTO members. On the other hand, those countries with a higher relative weight of the agricultural sector in the economy or of agricultural products in their imports have notified fewer SPS measures. This leads to the conclusion that it is necessary to reinforce actions that strengthen institutional and technical capacities for further convergence.     

贸易自由化提升了我国制造业资源配置效率吗——基于贸易政策不确定性的视角

文章以中国加入WTO为背景,基于贸易政策不确定性视角,采用双重差分法考察了贸易自由化对我国制造业资源配置效率的影响。研究结果表明:贸易政策不确定性的下降显著地提升了我国制造业资源配置效率。这一结论在一系列稳健性检验之后依然成立。进一步的机制研究发现,贸易政策不确定性下降对行业内不同生产率水平企业存在非对称性影响,主要通过提升较低生产率企业的生产率水平、促进最低生产率企业退出市场的渠道缩小了行业内生产率离散度,从而提升了行业资源配置效率。此外,上述资源配置效应在行业内国有企业、沿海地区企业以及出口企业样本中更加显著。文章为探究贸易自由化进程如何促进我国制造业转型升级提供了一种新的思路。     

WTO贸易援助制度构建的必要性研究

贸易援助作为WTO的一项倡议,在其实施4年以来暴露出许多不足之处,且该倡议实施期限具有不确定性。贸易援助可以帮助发展中国家克服各种阻碍贸易的限制性约束,充分发挥贸易对于经济增长和降低贫困的重要作用,必须长期开展贸易援助。WTO作为全球性贸易组织,决定贸易援助只有在WTO体系内才能更为有效、全面、根本的展开。为使贸易援助长期实施并解决目前贸易援助倡议中存在的问题,必须在WTO体系内构建贸易援助制度。     

近十年WTO框架下国际反倾销状况及趋势实证研究

在中国加入WTO十周年之际,本文根据WTO官方网站所提供的数据,从国际反倾销措施发起的数量、国别、地区和行业分布等角度综合分析WTO成员方所提起的国际反倾销措施的状况,以期揭示WTO框架下国际反倾销措施的特点、原因和趋势等情况。同时,本文也分析和总结我国近10年来反倾销的状况和趋势,以便更好地应对国际贸易摩擦和有效地维护国家的利益。     

美国贸易法301条款的修订及其启示

美国贸易法301条款是一项可以单方启动调查并认定他国法律、政策、行为违反协定或者不公平继而实施报复制裁的对外贸易措施,分为普通301条款、特别301条款与超级301条款。301条款最初简明规定了总统的权力和国会的否认权,但其后的修订对301条款的内容进行了扩展并使其更具体化。特别是301条款根据《2015年贸易便捷和贸易促进法》做出重大修改,涵盖了WTO体系尚未涵盖但最近已纳入自贸协定的新领域。然而,这些针对外国贸易活动的单方决定和措施附加等至今备受争议,且已对强调多边贸易争端解决的WTO体系构成严重威胁。美国贸易法301条款的修订主要围绕着美国贸易代表办公室(USTR)的措施、决定、对外国政府相关政策的监督、确认贸易自由化的优先顺序以及知识产权不适当保护的应对等内容进行。针对美国不断启动的301条款调查,我国应与美国积极开展沟通与协商,加强与美国产业界的接触和交流,发挥全球化程度高的企业的作用,力争以谈话和谈判化解矛盾;促进产业转型升级,重新审视“走出去”战略;履行加入WTO时的承诺,完善全方位的开放体制;合理拓展中国企业的海外利益,完善风险防范机制。     

Trade barriers or trade facilitators? The heterogeneous impact of food standards in international trade

Recent research shows that the effect of food standards can be heterogeneous across sectors or countries: they sometimes act as barriers to trade, but in other cases may lead to increased trade. I present empirical evidence on Norwegian seafood exports showing that foreign food standards, measured by sanitary and phytosanitary notifications to the WTO, generally have a negative impact on total exports, the number of exporters and their average exports. However, for fresh seafood, there is a positive counteracting effect. I present a theoretical explanation for this, suggesting that food standards reduce consumer uncertainty about quality and safety and therefore increase demand.     

论区域经济一体化及其对多边贸易体制的影响

区域一体化对于世贸组织的多边贸易体制既有有利的一面,也有不利的一面。通过区域一体化,可以试行一些尚未在世贸组织的多边贸易体制中出现的新制度或新规则,即作为世贸组织多边贸易体制的实验场所。但是,区域一体化可能与世贸组织的多边贸易体制发生冲突,需要协调两者之间的关系。世贸组织所面临的挑战是如何监督和控制区域一体化,使它们在多边贸易的框架内运行,并且不对多边贸易自由化构成威胁。     

WTO视角下中国(上海)自由贸易试验区知识产权保护问题探析

中国(上海)自由贸易试验区(简称"上海自贸区")不是世界贸易组织体制下的国际自由贸易区,而是根据《中国加入世界贸易组织议定书》所建立的国内特殊经济区。知识产权保护是世界贸易组织密切关注的重要议题,上海自贸区知识产权保护也是不可回避的焦点问题。"一线监管放开"的上海自贸区不是知识产权侵权的避风港,上海自贸区应当加强知识产权保护政策体系建设,严格知识产权海关执法;利用"先行先试"的优惠政策,在知识产权管理和执法体制方面为促进和完善国家知识产权政策体系提供示范效应,并为知识产权规则的国际协调提供实证支持。     

国民待遇原则与外贸经营资格——新《外贸法》扩大外贸经营者范围之思考

2004年新的《贸易法》开始实施,新外贸法对1994年《外贸法》与我国加入世贸经组织承诺和世贸组织规则不相符的内容进行了修改;根据我国加入世贸组织承诺和世贸组织规则,对我国享受世贸组织成员权利的实施机制和程序作了规定;同时也根据1994年《外贸法》实施以来出现的新情况和促进对外贸易健康发展的要求对其作了修改。其中最引人注目的是扩大对外贸易经营者的范围;取消了对货物和技术进出口经营权的审批,代之以备案登记。这是我国外贸资格管理方式的又一变革。本文着重分析了国民待遇原则和国家垄断对外贸易的国际规则对我国外贸资格管理方式的影响,并就在现阶段如何规范外贸经营管理方式,使之更加符合国际规范提出了建议。     

贸易保护主义对WTO的挑战及其应对

金融危机下贸易保护主义的泛滥不断冲击着以贸易自由化为目标的多边贸易体制。从WTO成员方在经济危机期间的表现,我们既看到了对承诺的背离、对原则的抛弃和对规则的滥用,也看到了对自由贸易的坚持和对贸易保护主义的纠正。本文试图以此次经济危机为背景来审视WTO规则及其实施机制,对贸易保护和贸易保护主义进行法律区分界定,考察贸易保护主义在WTO法实施过程中的具体体现,探寻WTO规则在经济艰难时期抗击贸易保护主义中存在的问题,研究应对贸易保护主义的法律路径。     

Exporting under trade policy uncertainty: Theory and evidence

I provide novel evidence for the impact of trade policy uncertainty on exporters. In a dynamic, heterogeneous firms model, trade policy uncertainty will delay the entry of exporters into new markets and make them less responsive to applied tariff reductions. Policy instruments that reduce or eliminate uncertainty, such as binding trade policy commitments at the WTO, increase entry. The predictions are tested on disaggregated, product-level Australian imports with model-consistent measures of uncertainty. The estimates show that growth of exporter–product varieties would have been 7% lower between 1993 and 2001 without the binding commitments implemented after the WTO was formed in 1996. If Australia reduced all its tariffs and bindings to zero, more than half of predicted product growth is accounted by removing uncertainty. These results illuminate and quantify an important new channel for trade creation.     

多哈发展议程与中国外贸可持续发展

协调贸易与发展的温尼伯原则促进WTO将环境措施融入了多边贸易体系之中。2001年WTO多哈部长级会议上,各方一致同意就贸易与环境议题进行谈判,力图实现贸易、环境与发展“三赢”的局面。我国作为WTO成员国,必须实施贸易与环境相互协调的外贸可持续发展战略,充分利用WTO多边贸易协议,支持环境项目;调整产业结构,加快发展第三产业;提倡集约化经营战略和循环经济发展模式,发展技术型产品,替代资源型产品的出口;内部化环境成本,促进贸易与环境和谐统一发展;实施绿色产品战略,推行环境标志认证;利用WTO争端解决机制解决贸易纠纷,以实现贸易和环境的相互协调,实现传统经济增长和发展模式向可持续发展模式的转变     

WTO法新发展与我国外贸法的完善

乌拉圭回合通过的一系列多边贸易协定标志着WTO法的新发展，使原来仅以货物贸易关系为调整对象的GATT法律体系发展成为既调整货物贸易，又调整技术贸易和服务贸易三大法律关系的WTO法律体系：WTO法的新发展既体现在对GATT法律体系的扩充，又体现在对GATT立法内容的修订与补充上：文章在论述WTO法新发展的基础上，探讨我国外贸法与外贸制度中迫切需要完善的若干问题。     

贸易与环境谈判:选择区别规则还是差别待遇?

贸易与环境谈判中需要权衡WTO规则与MEAs规则中对发展中国家待遇的差异。WTO规则的S&D已经转变为发展中国家履行义务的非互惠待遇,而MEAs的共同但有区别原则(CBDR)确认了发展中国家承担义务的差别待遇,两者的差异甚为明显。发展为我国当前核心利益,我国应该稳妥参与贸易与环境的谈判,但不宜积极推动谈判的进程。     

迈进入世山 再遇入市坎

美国及欧盟等国家不承认我国是市场经济体制国家.给不给予我国市场经济地位的待遇,不仅是一个贸易问题,更重要的是一个政治问题.我国要求承认我国是市场经济国家,对我国融入国际贸易体系,获取公正的国际贸易待遇,加快社会和经济发展意义重大.而＂非市场经济＂地位,对我国的国际形象、对外贸易造成的影响与损失极大.对此,我们应该采取＂冷静对待,力争突破＂的方针,力争获得市场经济国家的地位与待遇.     

入世后我国环境法制建设思路

发达国家打着保护环境的名义开始了新的“贸易壁垒”,WTO的规则允许各国可以为保护本国环境采取必要的措施,但要求不能造成新的贸易壁垒,如果违反有关限制性的措施,就是“环境贸易壁垒”。面对新的贸易体制,我国的环境法制建设应积极应对。