我国视听服务市场准入的法律问题

我国对视听服务的管理实行严格的市场准入制度。但是我国面临着进一步扩大市场准入的巨大压力。尽管WTO新一轮视听服务贸易自由化谈判停滞不前,不过数字技术的迅猛发展将在一定程度上使得视听服务贸易自由化成为现实。     

WTO在环境保护中的作用及环境谈判对我国的影响

尽管WTO不是环保组织,但WTO同贸易在三个层次上产生交集。WTO原则和规则对应对气候变化也非常重要。贸易与环境谈判是正在进行的WTO多哈回合多边贸易谈判中的一个重要内容,各成员正致力于削减或取消环保和服务的关税和非关税壁垒。目前关于削减环保产品的关税和非关税壁垒的方法是各方关注和争论的焦点。中国尽管作为发展中国家的一员,但却位列全球环境货物贸易大国之列。这种双重性决定了中国在贸易和环境谈判中的独特立场。     

WTO安全例外条款分析

WTO与国家安全例外相关的规则本身较为模糊。WTO是否有权、以及将如何裁决国家安全措施导致的贸易纠纷均无明确答案。在目前国家安全相关贸易纠纷不断增多的情况下,争议成员应遵循"善意"原则,尽量避免贸易纠纷升级,务实地寻求双边解决方案,同时积极完善多边贸易规则。     

自然人流动谈判的进程及影响因素分析

2000年WTO新一轮服务贸易谈判开启,自然人流动谈判是该轮谈判的焦点之一。自然人流动谈判历经提交提案、双边要价-出价、复边谈判、服务信号会议,尚未最终完结。WTO自然人流动谈判受到诸多因素的影响。自然人流动的更快速发展、发展中国家的更积极推动、利益相关者的更多关注对谈判起着有力的促进作用。而多哈回合一揽子承诺的谈判原则、自然人流动壁垒繁多复杂、发达国家与发展中国家间的利益冲突与观点分歧较大地阻碍了自然人流动谈判的进程。这些因素决定了自然人流动谈判成为WTO谈判的焦点,但其过程必定是曲折而缓慢的。     

WTO非正式决策机制“绿屋会议”研究

决策机制是WTO法律体系的重要组成部分,随着成员越来越广泛,该决策机制面临着"不公平、不民主,缺乏效率"的批评意见。如何在效率与民主之间取得平衡,使决策结果有助于实现WTO的目标,已成为150多个WTO成员共同面对的挑战。绿屋机制是GATT历史时代的产物,是WTO成员在实践中摸索出的一种具有WTO特色的非正式决策途径。然而,绿屋引起的争议很大,合法性、代表性和透明度始终是检验绿屋的重要标准。     

WTO透明度原则对《SPS协定》通知要求的影响分析

《SPS协定》要求成员通知卫生与植物卫生法规,以贯彻透明度原则。WTO成员可评论措施,促进规则的国际完善。欧盟积极履行了透明度义务,通知了欧盟层面和成员国层面的上述措施,但也存在若干问题,例如欧盟很大程度上依靠科学证据是否修改规则。由于欧盟组织机构的复杂性,通知制度带有一定的模糊性,但相当程度上促进了国际贸易的发展,完善了国际食品安全法律规则。     

The WTO and the rights of the individual

The WTO agreements comprise a system of obligations and rights for member governments. None of these apply directly to individual actors. Nevertheless, the WTO does reach into the nation-state to guarantee rights to individuals. The following article explores this little-noted dimension of international economic law and proposes ways that a new WTO trade round could build on developments so far in order to strengthen private rights. The views expressed are those of the author.     

WTO Rules on Direct Taxation

The widely‐followed ruling by the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body against the United States concerning the latter's FSC/ETI scheme, which led to the largest retaliation award ever authorised in a dispute at the WTO, confirmed (if there were ever any doubt) that, generally speaking, direct taxes, like indirect taxes (including tariffs), are subject to the multilateral rules of the WTO, notwithstanding efforts by tax authorities to secure specific exemptions for certain direct tax measures in these agreements. This ruling reconfirmed the traditional distinction under international trade rules between direct and indirect taxes, particularly with respect to how such taxes should be treated under the subsidy and border tax adjustment rules of the WTO. It prompted the US Congress finally to pass legislation in late 2004 to repeal the FSC/ETI scheme as part of a larger overhaul of the US corporate tax system. The most recent disputes between the United States and the European Communities over assistance to large civil aircraft (allegedly amounting in each case to even more than the FSC/ETI) also encompass direct tax measures. It would not be surprising if other WTO‐inconsistent direct tax measures were identified in the future, leading to further disputes among WTO Members. Multilateral WTO rules, which are agreed by consensus, can therefore be expected to continue to be an important factor in determining how Members shape their tax policies, as they will undoubtedly want to avoid having their tax policies successfully challenged in the WTO.     

多哈发展议程重启的前景分析

2006年7月,WTO总干事拉米正式建议全面中止已持续近5年的多哈发展议程谈判。尽管目前多哈发展议程已经显露出重启的曙光,但取得突破的前景仍不明朗。谈判难以取得进展,主要是由于成员间利益分歧过大造成的,然而,WTO本身也是有责任的,需要认真反思,主要包括谈判议题的确定、发展中成员利益的关注和对区域贸易协定影响的认识。     

How Effective are WTO Disciplines on Domestic Support and Market Access for Agriculture?

A new round of trade negotiations through the World Trade Organization (WTO) was launched in 2001. One of the major aims of the Doha Development Round is to reduce agricultural protection and impose greater discipline on domestic agricultural subsidies, particularly those that are the most trade distorting. In this article, we examine whether the proposed WTO modalities for agriculture will actually achieve this aim in Norway, which ranks among the top providers of government assistance for agriculture. Norway has a complex system of farm subsidies buttressed by substantial import protection. The extent to which its agricultural support policies will have to change in response to new WTO disciplines provides an important indication of how successful these are likely to be. We find that Norway will probably be able to sustain its current agricultural activity and production levels while staying within the new WTO rules. Following recent practice in some other WTO members, Norway will be able to reduce its notified support without making real changes in some of its programmes. However, there will have to be a shift from market price support, which is paid for by consumers through higher food prices, to budgetary support paid by taxpayers. This could generate increased domestic pressure for policy reform.     

WTO争端解决的“中国年”(2009):回顾与展望

2009年是中国入世后参与WTO争端解决最多,也是该年度涉案最多的WTO成员。这一年成了WTO争端解决的"中国年"。就中国参与WTO争端解决问题而言,刚过去的一年值得特别关注和研究。如何总结以往争端解决中的得失,提高应对中国涉案的争端解决水平,是摆在我们面前一项十分重要和紧迫的任务。     

中国涉案WTO争端解决的条约解释及其比较

2011年是中国入世后涉案WTO争端解决的结案数量最多的一年。这些结案报告含有大量关于WTO协定的条约解释,且多半直接影响案件的裁定,全面地、深入地研究这些条约解释,对于总结中国涉诉案件的经验教训以及继续更好地应对WTO争端解决,维护中国的国家利益及企业合法权益,具有十分重要的理论与实践意义。     

浅谈TBT与GATT国民待遇原则的选择适用问题

作为WTO协议附件1A的协议,TBT和GATT都规定了成员方的国民待遇义务,两者在适用范围上有一定的交叉,如果申诉方同时提起这两项协议项下有关国民待遇义务的申诉请求,争端解决机构就可能面临累积适用两项规则或者适用其中一项规则的选择。根据广义的冲突定义,这两项规则之间存在潜在的冲突,虽然争端解决机构可以依据司法经济原则避免冲突的产生,但是更好地避免冲突的路径是依据相关的冲突规则选择其中一项规则排除另一项规则的适用。     

Tracing the Effects of WTO Accession on Policy‐making in Sovereign States: Preliminary Lessons from the Recent Experience of Transition Countries

We examine in this paper the effects of WTO Accession on policy‐making and institutional reforms in transition countries. This is done by looking at the experience of those transition countries which are already Members of the WTO and/or which have recently acceded. We start by trying to distinguish between effects of accession negotiations and from those which are the results of autonomous policy initiatives. The areas of domestic policy‐making which are considered in the analysis include market access, governance, government budget, structural reforms, trade and investment arrangements with regional partners and macroeconomic management. We find that no precise blueprint of accession conditions can be ascertained and argue that the WTO played a role, albeit not an exclusive one, in the process of liberalisation. We also find that the costs of WTO Accession are not negligible, but that the benefits of WTO Membership are significant in terms of improved, more predictable, market access and its stability, improved governance and a recourse to better economic policies without significant loss to government revenues.     

新一轮农业谈判关税配额的争议及中国的立场

关税配额是农产品国际贸易中由非关税措施向关税化过渡的主要途径,是市场准入方面的重要内容之一.自乌拉圭回合以后,关税配额已成为世贸组织农业谈判中被广泛关注的问题,也是争议性极大的问题,直到目前,各世贸成员仍然未能就关税配额的设置及其管理模式达成一致的协议.文章考察了新一轮农业谈判中对于关税配额问题的争论焦点及发展趋势,并提出了在未来世贸组织农业谈判中我国应该持有的立场和采取的对策.     

我国现行贸易报复机制及其适用性分析

我国作为世界贸易组织成员被赋予对采取歧视性贸易保护措施的国家(地区)实施贸易报复的权利.在"和平崛起"战略下,我国现行贸易报复机制的适用是以符合世贸组织争端解决机制为前提的,其适用的措施及其适用的范围都有其独特性.     

Do WTO+ commitments in services trade agreements reflect a quest for optimal regulatory convergence? Evidence from Asia

Literature examining WTO + commitments in services trade agreements (STA s) has not considered the role of services regulation. We bridge this gap using a sample of 15 South/South‐East Asian countries, given the burgeoning trend of Asian economies towards services preferentialism and the largely WTO + nature of their preferential services commitments. Our empirical findings suggest that Asian trading dyads with regulatory frameworks that are more similar and more trade restrictive tend to undertake higher levels of WTO + commitments in their STA s. There is also evidence in our results, including by modes of supply, for WTO + commitments in Asian STA s being driven by goods trade complementarities, alluding to supply chain dynamics in the region. Such results support the hypothesis that the heightened “servicification” of production generates a demand to lower services input costs arising from regulatory incidence and heterogeneity.     

Special and Differential Treatment of Developing Countries in the WTO: Moving Forward After Cancún

The issue of special and differential treatment (SDT) for developing countries in the WTO has become a source of tension in North‐South trade relations. The absence of an effective SDT regime clearly contributed to the failure of the Cancún Ministerial meeting of the WTO. This paper argues for a new approach that puts the emphasis on efforts to improve the development relevance of WTO rules and create mechanisms which allow greater differentiation across WTO members in determining the applicability of WTO disciplines; complemented by non‐discriminatory liberalisation of trade in goods and services in which developing countries have an export interest. The former is key in allowing the WTO to expand its reach to new ‘behind the border’ policies; and the latter is important to establishing a development dimension in multilateral trade negotiations.     

入世前后外国直接投资对我国工业部门外溢效应的比较研究

本文采用面板数据(Panel Data)模型方法,对入世前后外国直接投资对我国工业部门的外溢效应进行了比较分析。结果表明,外国直接投资对我国整体及东、中、西部地区都产生了正的溢出效应,而且入世后较入世前更加显著。我国应继续遵循自己的路径吸引外国直接投资,充分发挥其外溢效应。     

文化服务贸易文献综述

近年来,文化服务全球贸易的增长十分迅猛。但是,在世界贸易组织框架下,文化服务贸易却是一块模糊不清的领域,因此有关文化服务贸易自由化的争论也一直存在。尤其是在视听服务开放的问题上,WTO各成员的立场严重对立。当然,就WTO各成员而言,是否推动文化服务贸易自由化,特别是视听服务的自由化,首先取决于各自的利益。