福建自贸区建设现状及战略思考

设立和发展自由贸易区是中国政府深入进行管理制度创新、实现贸易和投资自由化、建设开放型经济体制的重要战略举措。2014年12月28日,全国人民代表大会常务委员会通过关于授权国务院在中国(广东)自由贸易试验区、中国(天津)自由贸易试验区、中国(福建)自由贸易试验区以及中国(上海)自由贸易试验区扩展区域暂时调整有关法律规定的行政审批的决定,标志着中国自由贸易区的建设正由点带     

《中华人民共和国政府和冰岛政府自由贸易协定》在北京签署

<正>近日,在中国总理李克强和冰岛总理西于尔扎多蒂共同见证下,中国商务部部长高虎城与冰岛外交外贸部长奥叙尔?斯卡费丁松代表各自政府在北京人民大会堂签署了《中华人民共和国政府和冰岛政府自由贸易协定》。该协定是我国与欧洲国家签署的第一个自由贸易协定,涵盖货物贸易、服务贸易、投资等诸多领域。根据自贸协定规定,冰岛自协定生效之日起,对从中国进口的所有工业品和水产品实施零关税,这些产品占中国     

海南建设自由贸易试验区和中国特色自由贸易港之政府投资项目推进策略

海南建设自由贸易试验区和中国特色自由贸易港之战已经打响,基础设施及引领产业项目必须先行,即政府投资项目必须加快推进且要做到高效精准投资。文章在分析目前政府投资项目存在问题的基础上,提出了建设自贸区、自由贸易港政府投资项目的推进及保障措施等系列推进策略。     

试析中国自由贸易协定中的保障措施条款

保障措施作为一种贸易救济措施,被称为自由贸易的"安全阀"。自由贸易协定中关于保障措施的规定经历了从无到有和从不完善到相对完善的过程。在保障措施制度的设计方面,自由贸易协定多数援用WTO规定,但自由贸易协定也有其特别的保障措施规定。这就需要比较WTO保障措施制度与自由贸易协定保障措施制度的具体规则,总结自由贸易协定保障措施制度本身的特征和立法内涵,进而结合中国实践推进自由贸易协定中保障措施条款和立法的完善。     

TPP协议和WTO有关国有企业规定之比较

国有企业和国家指定垄断企业是TPP协议一个重要内容,协议对这些企业的贸易和投资行为所做的规定在某种程度上参照了WTO规则,特别是TPP关于国营贸易企业和垄断性服务供应商的规定以及关于政府补贴的规定,但在国有企业和指定垄断企业的定义、政府补贴、国有企业投资、监管中立、司法管辖、一般例外、国别例外和争端解决等几个方面,该协议的规定或是首创,或是比WTO的规定更加具体和有针对性。作为迄今为止标准最高的区域自由贸易协议,TPP协议有关规定很可能成为将来区域自由贸易协议制定相关纪律,乃至WTO深化现行有关规定的参考。     

财经资讯——国内

日前,中国商务部与冰岛外交外贸部官员在京互换了《中国一冰岛自由贸易协定》的生效照会。按照《协定》生效条款有关规定,《协定》将于2014年7月1日正式生效。中冰自贸区谈判于2006年12月启动。《协定》是我国与欧洲国家签署的第一个自由贸易协定,涵盖货物贸易、服务贸易、投资等诸多领域。     

南北自由贸易协定的主要议题分析

南北自由贸易谈判中的互惠原则一直受到批评。与WTO的现有规范相比,南北自由贸易协定在市场准入、政府采购、服务、投资、知识产权和竞争政策等领域超越了WTO的规定,对发展中国家的发展具有相当的不利影响。因此,发展中国家在进行自由贸易谈判时应当保持谨慎与小心,不仅要考虑市场开放带来的进出口和外来直接投资增加的影响,也要考虑这些贸易协定对他们追求更长时期的发展目标而采取其他政策与手段的选择权的影响。     

财经资讯77则

商务我与发达国家首签自由贸易协议我国与发达国家的第一个自由贸易协定——《中华人民共和国政府和新西兰政府自由贸易协定》日前在北京签署。根据《协定》规定,在货物贸易方面,新西兰将在2016年1月1日前取消全部自华进口产品关税;我国将在2019年1月1日前取消绝大部分自新进口产品关税。此外,双方还就服务贸易、人员流动和投资等方面达成了全面自由贸易协定。     

财经资讯77则

<正>商务我与发达国家首签自由贸易协议我国与发达国家的第一个自由贸易协定——《中华人民共和国政府和新西兰政府自由贸易协定》日前在北京签署。根据《协定》规定,在货物贸易方面,新西兰将在2016年1月1日前取消全部自华进口产品关税;我国将在2019年1月1日前取消绝大部分自新进口产品关税。此外,双方还就服务贸易、人员流动和投资等方面达成了全面自由贸易协定。     

南北自由贸易协定的主要议题分新

南北自由贸易谈判中的互惠原则一直受到批评。与WTO的现有规范相比，南北自由贸易协定在市场准入、政府采购、服务、投资、知识产权和竞争政策等领域超越了WTO的规定，对发展中国家的发展具有相当的不利影响。因此，发展中国家在进行自由贸易谈判时应当保持谨慎与小心，不仅要考虑市场开放带来的进出口和外来直接投资增加的影响，也要考虑这些贸易协定对他们追求更长时期的发展目标而采取其他政策与手段的选择权的影响。     

Regulating Unfair Trade Practices: an Analysis of the Past and Present Indian Legislative Models

The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 (MRTP Act) which for the first time incorporated detailed provisions as to unfair trade practices (UTPs) in India has now been repealed and succeeded by the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 which has included the same substantive definition of UTPs. This article analyses the law as to UTPs under the repealed MRTP Act including the cases decided thereunder and compares it with the structure of the Consumer Protection Act with the objective of evaluating whether the present Consumer Dispute Redressal Agencies under the Consumer Protection Act have adequate substantive provisions and effective procedural competence to ward off UTPs. Our analysis of legislative provisions and decided cases shows that the present system of protection against UTPs under the Consumer Protection Act is blighted by a strict and restrictive definition of consumer; lack of in-house enquiry and investigation system, incompetency of traders and trade associations to pursue cases, and lack of inherent power of the Consumer Dispute Redressal Agencies to suo motu take up matters. The article uses analytical and statistical methods to quantify, in terms of actual effect, these drawbacks which significantly hamper the present system and suggests various means to improve the functioning of the system so as to effectively deal with UTPs.     

Business-to-Consumer Harassment,Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and the UK—A Distorted Picture of Uniform Harmonization?

The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005 (UCPD) attempts to achieve a full harmonization of the rules against unfair business-to-consumer (B2C) practices. However, this paper argues that the UCPD cannot resolve disparities in national laws because of a lack of clarity of concepts and the existence of uncertain substantive and enforcement provisions. This is demonstrated by the Ferguson v British Gas case which extended the loosely formulated UK Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (PHA) to B2C harassment cases covered by the UCPD. Ferguson highlights contradictions in the approaches of the two systems which suggest loopholes in the UCPD’s full harmonization goal. As well as proposing the amendment of the PHA, the paper suggests that complete harmonization requires that issues of clarity of concepts, definitions, liability, ancillary tort claims, and enforcement rights which create room for creative interpretations and lack of uniformity should be addressed. A one-stop legislation approach to transposition can also improve harmonization.     

对《合同法》总则的再研究

《合同法》总则在合同的定义、合同的效力、无权代理和越权代表、合同的变更和转让以及违约损害赔偿额的计算等问题的规定上均存在瑕疵。这些瑕疵之所以产生,其原因在于或与法理有悖,或与生活相违,或用语不够规范,或逻辑不够严密。消除这些瑕疵时,应当本着遵循法理尊重生活的精神,并兼顾逻辑严密用语规范等要求,以期使《合同法》总则的规定更加科学。     

Kick‐starting diffusion: Explaining the varying frequency of preferential trade agreements’ environmental provisions by their initial conditions

Most recent preferential trade agreements (PTAs) include environmental provisions. While a number of these environmental provisions remain rare and are incorporated in just a few PTAs, others are widely popular and are duplicated in more than 100 PTAs. We still lack a convincing explanation for this varying frequency. While the diffusion literature typically tries to explain how diffusion occurs, we investigate why certain provisions diffuse more often than others. We hypothesise that the initial conditions under which provisions first emerge determine the scope of their diffusion. Our results support this hypothesis and indicate that provisions originating from intercontinental agreements diffuse more often than others. At the same time, provisions first designed by economically powerful or environmentally credible countries are not related to more frequent occurrences of diffusion. These findings are of interest for the literatures on international institutions' design, interaction and diffusion.     

揭开神秘的面纱：民事诉讼标的识别理论的解放

诉讼标的是民事诉讼法学者必须经过的一座桥,然这一重要概念却长期处于不休的学说论争中,这给民事诉讼理论体系的安定性带来了不小的冲击。因此,诉讼标的理论需要在长期的学说论争中妥协,从而寻获一条相对合理的解释路径。对于诉讼标的的认识应正本清源,从其设定本旨出发去探寻和了解其真意,进而合理择定其识别基准。同时,诉讼标的的识别基准还应辅以虑及一国之民事司法环境。在这样的前提下,旧实体法说是一种相对合理且适切的选择。虽然旧实体法说有其固有缺陷,但可以通过程序法和实体法的互动与协作,以制度联动的方式帮助旧实体法说理论脱困,使其在理论阐释和司法实践中发挥着双重功效与机能。     

EU Treaty Revision and Consumer Protection

In its original version, this paper was delivered by the authors to the Bureau Europeen des Unions des Consommateurs in April 2004 in order to provide the basis for that bodys submissions to the intergovernmental conference then charged with the task agreeing a new constitutional Treaty for the European Union. The aim: to improve the attention paid to the consumer interest in the Treaty. Ultimately the text agreed by the Heads of State and government of the Member States of the EU in June 2004 largely adopted the existing consumer-related acquis communautaire – in fact in most areas of substantive EU policy-making, not merely consumer policy, textual continuity is the hallmark of the newly agreed text. This paper has been revised to provide a commentary on the consumer-related provisions that were agreed in June 2004, in order both to show chances that have been missed (but may be revived should the ratification process founder) and to reveal areas of current debate that remain topical and controversial because of the preference simply to absorb existing provisions, lightly amended or left wholly unamended, into the constitutional Treaty agreed by the Heads of State and government of the Member States of the EU in June 2004.     

“特保条款”及其对我国出口贸易的负面影响评析

“特保条款”是世贸组织保障机制的重要组成部分。中国《入世议定书》和《工作组报告书》中的“特保条款”具有专门适用于中国的特定性、单向性与歧视性。在这些“特保条款”的过渡期限内,任一世贸组织进口成员都可以针对给其造成或威胁造成市场扰乱的某一中国出口产品提起“特保”立案申请,这就必然会给我国的出口贸易带来不利影响。本文在比较分析各类保障条款的基础上,对“特保条款”的适用现状与不利影响进行分析与评价,并提出若干应对措施。     

The Harm of Symbolic Actions and Green-Washing: Corporate Actions and Communications on Environmental Performance and Their Financial Implications

We examine over 100 top performing Canadian firms in visibly polluting industries as we seek to answer four research questions: What specific environmental issues are firms addressing? How do these issues differ between industries? Are both symbolic and substantive actions financially beneficial? Does green-washing, measured as the difference between symbolic and substantive action, and/or green-highlighting, measured as the combined effect of symbolic and substantive actions, pay? We find that substantive actions of environmental issues (green walk) neither harm nor benefit firms financially, but symbolic actions (green talk) are negatively related to financial performance. We also find that green-washing (discrepancy between green talk and green walk) has a negative effect on financial performance and green-highlighting (concentrated efforts of the talk and walk) has no effect on financial performance. In this article, we provide explanations of our findings and put forth future research directions.     

WTO争端解决机制中的举证责任分配——论上诉机构的规则定性识别法

条款识别关系到WTO争端解决机制中的举证责任分配。虽然例外性条款可以从字面形式判断,但援引例外性条款未必导致举证责任分配的变化。决定举证责任分配的根本是例外性条款所包含的＂例外性规则＂。上诉机构通过规则定性的方法将＂例外性规则＂分为两类,从而实现对不同例外性条款的识别,为举证责任分配规则的完善提供了捷径。     

Traders’ Subjective Appraisals: Comparison of Negotiations and Auctions

ABSTRACT

The assessments of business trade often involve economic and relational concerns. They may become more challenging when our understanding of the impacts of trading mechanisms is still limited. The current experimental study compares two generic trading mechanisms, namely, multibilateral multi-issue negotiations and multicriteria auctions. By examining economic measures and subjective appraisals in controlled exchange episodes, the study shows some subtle relationships between mechanism use, substantive outcomes, and subjective appraisals. While use of negotiations versus auctions did not reveal significant differences on economic measures, traders are strongly influenced by the gain-or-loss contingency. When they win a contract, their subjective appraisals are heavily influenced by their achieved substantive outcomes. When they do not win a contract, they feel auctions are better than negotiations. The results confirm the assessments of business trade that rely solely on substantive measures are not sufficient.